The First Vice President of the Government and Minister of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation, Nadia Calvinohas ensured that the boycott of Spanish strawberries by german supermarkets “It was seen coming from the first moment.”
A delegation of German deputies visits Spain this week to inquire about the future of Doñana
“From the first moment we have expressed our concern and I honestly saw it coming; I saw it coming that this type of irresponsible action with a jewel of our heritage as it is Donana would have a negative impact on our image, which will indirectly affect these farmers who have a high prestige in international markets”, Calviño lamented in an interview on TVE 1 when asked by the visit of German deputies scheduled for this week in order to take an interest in the situation of the Andalusian wetland. Hours later, when the deputies were already at the headquarters of the Ministry for Ecological Transition, the German embassy in Spain released a statement announcing the suspension of the visit and the agreed official agency. Thus, the deputies will no longer travel to Andalusia.
Junta de Andalucía: “It is intolerable that the Government sponsor this campaign against strawberries”
The origin of this boycott is in a campaign by Campact, a platform similar to change.org, launched last week urging the country’s large supermarket chains –Edeka, Lidl, Aldi and Rewe- to “not contribute to the desiccation of the Doñana National Park”. Although the campaign has hardly reached the German consumer, the platform already displays the figure of almost 163,000 signatures on its website in favor of this campaign.
In Germany, Parliamentarians from the Committee for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection of the Bundestag had scheduled to meet this Monday with the Secretary of State for the Environment, Hugo Moran. They had also planned meetings this week with the Andalusian Vice Minister of Sustainability, Sergio Arjona, and with representatives of farmers associationsenvironmental protection organizations, political foundations and scientists, as well as a visit to the Doñana park.
Ribera: “The best way to defuse the bombs is for the Board to stop messing around and putting Spanish farmers and irrigators at risk”
An hour before knowing the suspension of the trip at the edge of 1:00 p.m., the interprofessional association of the sector, interstrawberryhad invited the German parliamentarians to visit the Huelva strawberry and red fruit crops “so that they can verify first-hand that all the strawberries marketed in Germany are certified the legal and responsible use of water for cultivation”. According to Interfresa, 100% of exported strawberries and red berries have the GLOBAL GAP IFA “Spring” certification for crops. “The German supermarkets themselves require this certification, among which are the most relevant Rewe, Aldi, Lidl, Edeka and Kaufland. In the rest of Europe the British also ask for it TESCO, Marks and Spencer and Sainsbury’s; the french Carrefour and Auchan; or the swiss Migros and Coopamong many others”, says Interfresa.
The sector shows its willingness to enter into conversations with institutions and distributors to clarify “the lack of rigor of this campaign, which is insidious and harmful to the industry” and, among other actions, has addressed a letter to the German embassy in Spain.
Clash between the Junta and the Government
He Andalusian government spokesman and Minister of Sustainability, Environment and Blue Economy, Ramón Fernández-Pacheco, criticized this Monday the “use” that the central government was making of the visit of German parliamentarians this week to Andalusia by acting as a “boycott speaker” to the strawberry campaign promoted by a consumer association in Germany. “We are going to clarify everything that we have to clarify,” Fernández-Pacheco indicated, while judging that “it is intolerable that the Government sponsor this campaign against strawberries.”
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In Madrid, the third vice president of the Government, Teresa Ribera, considered that “the best way to defuse all the bombs” in relation to the possible boycott of Spanish strawberries is that the Junta de Andalucía “stop fooling around and put Spanish irrigators and farmers at risk, the reputation of Spain and obviously, Doñana”.
Speaking to the media at the start of a conference on European funds organized by eldiario.es, Ribera described the reputational crisis that has been opened with a proposal brought to the Andalusian parliament “without any kind of consensus”, without paying attention to science, to the protection of Doñana in a space considered an “environmental cathedral”. The vice president disassociated herself from the planned visit of the German parliamentarians by explaining that the initiative had come “directly from the Bundestag.”