The Son Carbó dairy farm, located in Campos and one of the farms affected by the closure of Agama, has submitted an offer to acquire 51% of Formatges Grimalt with the support of other partners, in an operation that aims to guarantee the continuity of the dairy sector in Mallorca.

The Son Carbó dairy farm, located in Campos and one of the farms affected by the closure of Agama, has submitted an offer to acquire 51% of Formatges Grimalt with the support of other partners, in an operation that aims to guarantee the continuity of the dairy sector in Mallorca.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Natural Environment, through the Directorate General for Agri-food Quality and Local Product, has opened two proceedings against the Damm group for using the name Mallorca in direct relation to Laccao. A brand that no longer has any connection with the island and that is a 100% Catalan product.

Mallorca's dairy cow producers have made a public call to stop consuming products and boycott the Grup Damm in response to the closure of the Agama plant and the decision to stop collecting milk on the island. The sector considers that the company has breached the commitment made with the farmers, which provided for maintaining collection until September to give them reorganization time.

The story ofAgama in Mallorca It could have ended differently. The Damm group Agama was open to handing over the factory and the Agama brand, but after months of negotiations, the proposal was rejected. This offer came during talks to create a cooperative in Mallorca to manage dairy production on the island, bringing together the Balearic government, Agama workers, farmers, and some private investors. What was meant to be a lifeline for Mallorca's dairy sector failed to materialize and has led to its collapse and demise.another part of the Balearic Islands industry.

The Minister of Agriculture, Joan Simonet, has been summoned to Parliament to answer questions about the closure of Agama, the Balearic Islands' main dairy company. In a debate marked by opposition criticism of the Ministry's management, Simonet lashed out at the Damm Group for causing the closure with its "erratic pricing policy." "I'm left wondering what this group's word is worth and what their real commitment to these islands is," he lamented. "What cannot be allowed is to play games with the sector, with the farmers, and with the workers," he asserted.

The Damm group has reached an agreement with the workers of Agama after weeks of negotiations. Due to the factory closure in PalmaThe company will relocate five of the 14 workers, and the remaining nine will receive severance pay higher than initially agreed upon. However, according to Jesús Ávila, spokesperson for the Agama workers, the five who will remain will retain their current salaries and other employment benefits, such as seniority. Sources within the company told ARA Baleares that a social support plan has been designed, which includes the possibility of redeployment for 100% of the workforce to other companies within the group, most of them in Mallorca. Furthermore, Damm stated that they are committed to offering "an individualized solution to all those affected." As for the workers who do not accept the redeployment plan and decide to leave the company voluntarily, the agreement reached with Damm includes improved severance packages.

Until the 1970s, one in three workers in the Balearic Islands was employed in industry. The islands manufactured a large part of what they used and even exported to mainland Spain and abroad. Today, the figures are different and show how this sector, considered strategic and essential for creating quality jobs, is practically negligible in the overall economy and continues to lose ground. Tourism has become so dominant that, at best, industry represents 5% of economic activity. According to data from the Balearic Government, which uses less restrictive parameters, there are approximately 6,000 companies. According to the Impulsa Foundation database, the figure is less than 700.

He closure of the Agama factory, owned by DammThis represents a further economic loss for the primary sector of the Balearic Islands. The portion of the subsidy that the brewery received The funds allocated to European Union and Spanish Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries will be returned to the European Union and Spanish government budgets, respectively. No investment will be made in other potential businesses in the sector that could have received the funds had Damm not requested them and subsequently closed the factory.

Outrage, rejection, and anger from the Agama workers because of the attitude of the Ministry of Agriculture towards the factory closure in PalmaThis was explained by Jesús Ávila, spokesperson for the workers of the Mallorcan dairy, on ARA Baleares. "They haven't wanted to meet with us for three months," Ávila stated. According to the workers, since the announcement that the cooperative project was being scrapped, they have been trying unsuccessfully to meet with Regional Minister Joan Simonet, even though the factory has already closed. The workers criticize the fact that no one has informed them of the reasons for the cooperative's failure and the factory's closure, "even though they were part of the initial negotiating table." When Damm made the closure public from the factory was more than possiblethe option arose to create a cooperative project with the workers, the Ministry of Agriculture and AgamaEverything seemed to be going well, but the Regional Ministry and Damm excluded the workers, who had conceived the project, from the negotiations, despite their requests to participate and be informed about the initiative's progress. They also claim they have been "ignored" and that "the situation hasn't changed." "Even though the factory has closed, we still haven't received any answers or been able to talk to anyone," they complain.

The Prime Minister, Marga Prohens, has accused the Damm Group of deceiving the Administration and livestock farmers with the closure of the Agama factory in PalmaA leading figure in Mallorca's dairy industry. Furthermore, during the plenary session of the Balearic Islands Parliament, it was announced that the Government will revoke the declaration of regional interest which the multinational had requested and will demand the return ofa grant of more than one million euros"We will stand with the sector and support its initiatives to guarantee the continuity of the dairy industry," the president stressed.

It was clear for months that Agama wasn't going to end well. And so it was. One of the emblems of the island's agribusiness is going under.One more peak, the question is as simple as it is demoralizing: how can a product of the land in a country that constantly asserts its identity not be viable?

Young people from Mallorca for the Language will not offer Estrella Damm beer during theAcampallengua The protest will take place on April 11th and 12th in Na Molla Park in Manacor, following the Catalan company's decision to close Mallorca's main dairy farm.

Damm has announced that, after the closure of the Agama factory in Palma, will do everythingLaccaoin Catalonia, but will maintain its traditional recipe. Furthermore, the company has also assured that there will be no changes to the production quantity of this traditional Balearic Islands beverage, nor to its marketing or distribution; the only change is that, from now on, Laccao, one of the flagship products of the islands' industry, will be a 100% Catalan product.

Damm will have to return 1.1 million euros to the Government of the subsidy it received within the framework of the transformation of the primary sector, after announcing the closure of the Agama factory in Palma and to fail to comply with the established regulations. This is provided that the file opened by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Natural Environment confirms what is already evident: the conditions established in the terms and conditions have not been met, since these require maintaining the activity for five years from the date the public aid is received.

Agama, owned by the Damm Group, announced this Tuesday the final closure from the Palma plant and brought an end to the last large dairy with its own production in Mallorca. The immediate impact, for now, has been felt in the countryside. Three Mallorcan livestock farms, which They depended on the central office as their main buyerThey are left in a situation of extreme fragility. progressive reduction of orders Its viability had already been strained, and the announcement of the closure confirms an uncertain scenario for farms conditioned by the additional costs of insularity and by competition from foreign products at lower prices.

The historic Mallorcan dairy company Agama, founded in 1958 and owned by the Damm Group for the past decade, has announced to its employees that it is closing its Palma plant after years of crisis due to a lack of competitiveness. According to sources at Agama, the company's management offered the fourteen current employees positions at other companies within the group.

The Government set December 31 as the deadline to find a solution for the General Agrarian Association of Mallorca (Agama), that will stop buying milk from producers in Mallorca in 2026However, sources within the Balearic Islands government have explained to ARA Baleares that they have extended the deadline for finding a solution for the dairy plant because "it cannot be done by the end of the year." Even so, they regretted that the original deadline had not been met and justified the delay by saying that the procedures "are slow." The government has not yet decided on a new deadline to definitively clarify Agama's future, although it is expected to be at the beginning of next year. Otherwise, "there will be no room to maneuver or reverse the situation," government sources acknowledged.

In 2024, Mallorca produced 9,708,923 liters of milk, almost three million liters less than in 2020, the year of the pandemic, when the figure exceeded 12.6 million liters. In just four years, production has fallen so sharply due to "the crisis in the dairy industries, mainly inAgama", as explained by the Director General of Agriculture, Livestock and Rural Development, Fernando Fernández.

The Government has set December 31 as the deadline to find a solution for the General Agrarian Association of Mallorca (AgamaAccording to sources within the Balearic Islands government speaking to ARA Baleares, "This is the deadline; otherwise, we won't have any room to maneuver or reverse the situation." Sources in the primary sector added that Agama will buy milk from one of the three producers who currently supply it until October 31, 2026, but emphasized that, starting March 31, this milk will no longer be processed in Mallorca because Damm's lease agreement with Comercial Bordoy for the facilities will expire. The situation at Agama is causing concern among farmers and agricultural associations. Joan Gaià, coordinator of Unió de Pagesos, warned in the Balearic Parliament that the closure of Agama would be "an attack on the food sovereignty" of the Balearic Islands. He also listed other issues that worry farmers, such as the lack of social consideration and the effects of climate change. "What country in the world can afford to do without the dairy industry? It's very important and continues to be a loss leader in supermarkets, which is what has brought the state and Mallorcan sectors to where they are today," he stressed. Gaià lamented that there hasn't been enough self-criticism and that no one has been "brave enough" to raise their voices against the closure of Agama. "The interests of a business group cannot take precedence over those of a people. Closing Agama is an attack on the food sovereignty of the people of the Balearic Islands," he insisted.