The final blow to the dairy farms of Mallorca
The agonizing history of milk in Mallorca is, in fact, the repeated history of a collective failure: the inability in the Balearic Islands to sustain projects other than tourism or construction. What once seemed solid and rooted in the region, with values of proximity, sustainability, and social commitment, is now fading amid the indignation of a few and the indifference of the majority.
The case of Agama is paradigmatic. This company, founded in 1958 under the acronym of the General Agrarian Association of Mallorca, presented itself as the guarantee of Km0 milk. "Mallorcan farms. Since 1958, we have been packaging freshly milked cow's milk, sourced exclusively from Mallorcan farms, so that it retains all its flavor": that's what every carton of milk that leaves its factory still says today. But reality has long since belied that commitment. Laccao, the iconic drink for generations of Mallorcans, hasn't been made with milk from the island for a few years now. And just a few days ago, the company announced it will stop buying milk from Mallorcan dairy farms, leaving the few remaining producers by the wayside. It's worth bearing in mind that in the mid-2000s, only about fifteen farms supplied milk to Agama. Now there are only three left. And the announcement of the withdrawal of this purchase makes its continuation quite unviable. It's the final blow in a history that also includes unfair contracts, low prices, and the forced precariousness of the peasantry.
It's no small paradox that Agama was declared a strategic project by the Balearic Government just twenty months ago. The company has received public subsidies, yet today it seems to be turning its back on the territory where it was born and raised. It's legitimate to wonder what the point of declarations of support and aid is if, in the end, they don't prevent the sector from being destroyed. What is lost at the end of the Mallorcan milk industry goes beyond an economic activity. Agribusiness has or should play a key role in social cohesion. Agriculture and livestock, when they are alive, guarantee a vibrant territory, economic diversification, and greater food sovereignty. Every farm's peak decline makes us more dependent on outside sources and more vulnerable to global crises.
The agonizing history of milk in Mallorca is, thus, another symptom of an unbalanced economic model, which concentrates all its efforts on tourism and construction, while marginalizing any other productive activity. The result is an archipelago incapable of sustaining itself even in the most basic way. If we don't want the future to be a productive desert outside of hotels and real estate developments, a real and decisive commitment to the countryside and agribusiness is necessary. The problem is not only the dairy sector's: it's everyone's.
