Barcelona, June 6 – The Association of Meat Companies, Anafric, has asked the president of the Government of Catalonia, Joaquim Torra, the collaboration of this administration in the defense of meat, as food. José Friguls, president of Anafric, argued the “criminalization” suffered by the meat sector in general and it was recalled that the consumption of this food is supported by the Mediterranean Diet and that, as a sector, only the Catalan pig, generates more than 27 thousand million euros annually.
The president of the Government of Catalonia, Joaquim Torra, and the Regional Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Food, Teresa Jordà, met on Wednesday, June 5 with the entire Catalan meat sector. An appointment that, “for the first time in 20 years”, as Friguls, president of Anafric, recalled, gather in the headquarters of the Government of Catalonia, the productive and industrial segments of the pig sector. The central issue on the table: swine fever that already affects some European countries and runs the risks of arriving in Spain, which would generate a very negative economic impact. In this sense, public administration and private sector, agreed to advance on a common front to prevent the entry of the Swine Fever. “It is not a threat to the pig sector, but a threat to Catalonia and also at the state level”, they remember.
Currently, the pig industry in Catalonia generates 27 billion euros annually. The sector affirms that “it is a competitive cluster worldwide”. According to data from the Minister of Agriculture, in the year 2018 they exceeded 7.7 million animals; a census that is above that of countries like Belgium and the United Kingdom. The meeting also served for the Ministry to take the commitment to study actions that reach public opinion remembering that the consumption of meat is part of the Mediterranean Diet and the benefits of this food.
The session was attended by representatives of Anafric, Federació Catalana de Carnissers I Cansaladers, la Federació Empresarial de la Carn i Indústries Càrniques (FECIC), Porcat, Anprogapor, ASFAC, Federació de Cooperatives Agràries de Catalunya, la Jarc, i Unió de Pagesos.
