The supply of cereals will continue without interruption, Agriculture Minister Maria do Céu Antunes assured on Tuesday, admitting, however, that she is concerned about the rise in prices and the uncertainty about the duration of the war in Ukraine.
“Right now, and given the material that is in Valuesthe ships that are arriving and the contracts that are signed, a break in cereal supply in Portugal is not expected“, said the minister, speaking to journalists, on the sidelines of the 8th Congress of the Portuguese Agri-Food Industry, organized in Lisbon by the Federation of Portuguese Agri-Food Industries (FIPA).
Ukraine, the target of an armed conflict initiated by Russia for more than three months, was responsible for 40% of the corn purchased by Portugal, recalled the minister, who stressed that national importers, in order not to compromise national supplies, found alternative markets in America. . North America, South America and South Africa, and that wheat is mainly purchased from France.
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The minister also spoke about the price observatory, a project that the Government announced in May that it wanted to create, stating its intention to launch it “as soon as possible” and specifying that, at this time, is in the process of contracting the company in charge of surveying prices.
The objective, the official recalled, is “in a transparent way to be able to demonstrate that there is a fair distribution of income and prices from primary production, through transformation and then to the consumer.”
In her speech, at the meeting organized by FIPA, the minister recalled that, in a first phase, the observatory starts with a pilot project with a set of products that correspond to a food basket for a family, but that “quickly” the Government needs that extend to the entire agri-food complex.
“The goal is, in a future phase, for the product to be sustainable throughout the line, to have a brand, a seal, so that whoever reaches the supermarket shelf truly knows that, when buying that product (…), it was fair. with all the elements of the chain, it left no one behind and contributed to the sustainable development of the country”, concluded Maria do Céu Antunes.
Source: Observadora
