The agreement with Morocco will cost more than 15,000 jobs in the region of Valencia, according to AVA-Asaja

AVA-Asaja estimated that in just a few years the EU agreement with Morocco, today renewed by the Council, will lead to the loss of more than 15,000 jobs direct and in­di­rec­tos in the region. At the same time, the agrarian or­­ganización warns that the prác­ti­ca li­be­­ralización of hortofru­tícolas exchanges with the North African country will speed up the process of abandonment of fields, which in the past eight years (from 2002 to 2009) already acu­mu­la the exorbitant number of 140,000 hec­táreas (Ha). His pre­sidente, Cris­tó­bal Agua­do, emphasizes the "paradox" which means that in the same jor­­nada the EU has claimed the regime of Mo­ha­med VI res­pe­to to disenfranchisement in the Sahara and "is re­­compense to the mo­narca with more con­cesiones to consolidate the unfair competition with the hor­to­fru­tíco­la sector".

Done calculating fundamentally responds to the impact that it will bring the aper­tu­ra to two key crops, tomato - of which the region is the fourth na­cional pro­duc­tor - and the cít­ri­cos - the first-. The figures provided are co­rres­pon­den with the value measured in em­pleos that generate two separate crops as well as other 'minor' without conside­rar the pues­tos of work created beyond clothing store, for example in the transport of the product. Thus, in the ca­so of the vegetable, only in our au­to­no­mía would be more than a thousand em­pleos which would destroy in the medium term, when it will hi­ciera effective access to the EU of 285,000 tons 'free'. In the case of the cí­­tricos, the impact of the new con­­ce­siones in na­ran­jas - which is no longer a 'sensitive' crop to remove the con­tin­gen­tes-; man­darinas - pa­ra which also removes the maximum to­ne­la­jes - and clementines - cu­yo contingent ele­va to 170,000 tonnes - would be mu­­cho higher, given that it pon­dría in danger more than 12,000 em­pleos, 5,500 of them of citricultores and rest pro­ce­den­te of the work of re­co­lección and pro­­cesado.

With regard to the abandonment of fields, AVA-Asaja predicts would that only in citrus nue­vas chances given the Moroccan country lead in the medium term the disappearance of 16,000 hectares (Ha). Surface which add to the nearly 15,000 Ha. abandoned in the úl­timos eight years because of the price crisis, which the insurance agreement agra­varía to su­poner also cut by 30 per cent of the current price of entry.