Spain is lagging behind EU countries in emergency measures to ease rising fuel prices. At the end of this month, the government will approve tax rebates or subsidies to ease the rise in gasoline and diesel. Spain is still waiting for the EU’s decision.
With the prices of fuels (gasoline, diesel…) soaring in recent weeks, oil prices have experienced a historic milestone in recent days. Prices at many Spanish gas stations are as high as 2 euros per liter, a record high.
Since March 14, truck drivers have been on indefinite strike to protest against the increase in fuel prices, which has had a significant impact on the food industry.
A growing number of platforms and merchants are experiencing shortages of goods due to transportation issues, such as Mercamadrid, Spain’s largest fresh food distribution, marketing, running and logistics platform, which has received half as many items. Fish, shellfish, fruits and vegetables are even down by 60%.
In addition manufacturers in the food industry, from milk producers to meat producers, have been affected. And due to the conflict, most of the wheat and corn imported for animal feed is also facing shortages.
Dairy Industry
The Spanish dairy industry was one of the first to sound the alarm about what was about to happen.
The National Federation of the Dairy Industry (Fenil), the employers’ association of the sector, which integrates more than 60 companies and represents 95% of the country’s production, announced that companies in the sector were forced to suspend their transformation activities because of disruptions in the supply of inputs (caps, stickers, bricks…) necessary for the production of dairy products and finished products difficult to transfer to the distribution chain.
Unable to store and preserve the highly perishable food, some farmers have been forced to throw away their milk, as is the case in the video published, where a farmer from Outeiro de Rei (Lugo) is throwing away milk due to the disruption of transport in Villeira (León), where hundreds of liters of product did not receive collection.
However, this situation is “not widespread” and in the vast majority of farms “are currently collecting milk normally”, so as not to make farmers waste time.
Fishermen “bankrupt”
Unable to distribute throughout Spain, fishery employees have also joined the strike. Fishermen in Galicia, Cantabria, Asturias and Andalusia have stopped fishing normally and they intend to “sounding the alarm” to the government: if fuel prices continue to rise, they will have to make “other decisions”.
Manuel Fernández Belmonte, president of the Andalusian Federation of Fishermen’s Guilds (Facope), said the price of fishing was costing more than sales, forcing fishermen to moor their fleets to avoid losing money.
Eggplant, peppers and zucchini are declining in the south
On the other hand, Barcelona and the region’s Fruit and Vegetable Wholesalers Association (Agem) warned that foodstuffs such as eggplant, peppers, zucchini and strawberries will be significantly reduced, mainly due to a decrease in the market supply of fresh produce from areas such as Almeria, Granada, Málaga and Huelva.
No feed for farms
On the other hand, the animal feed and livestock industry has warned that they are unable to obtain raw materials for the production of livestock feed and to deliver it to livestock farms, which will soon affect the survival and health of the animals.
Olives, “limited supply”
The Spanish Association of Exporters and Industrialists of Edible Olives (Asmesa) announced that companies in the sector are currently “at the limit of supply”. Without a solution, the production and marketing of table olives will be paralyzed in the future.
Sources:
https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/truckers-strike-spain-disrupts-food-industry-2022-03-17/
https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/truckers-strike-in-spain-disrupts-food-industry
The blog of Logistics at MGEPS at UPV 