"Agama made me close the dairy nine months earlier than I wanted."

Baltasar Martí sold milk to the General Agrarian Association of Mallorca (Agama) for 42 years. He still remembers how they handled it when he started. "We put it in 40-liter pots and loaded them onto a truck just like the ones used today to transport gravel," he says. He claims that if it were up to him, he would have closed the dairy farm in September of this year. "But Agama made me close nine months earlier than I wanted," he laments.

In September 2023, the farmers who were still selling milk in Agama They spoke with the person who renewed their contracts every three months. "He told us that on October 1st, one of the producers would stop selling milk to Agama because it would be sold to another company," he explains. He also announced that "the company wanted to open another one in December 2023, and another one in March 2024." However, this announcement didn't come to fruition "thanks to the pressure exerted by agricultural organizations and unions," he says. These organizations expressed their disagreement with the company's decision. "That's why Agama backtracked and didn't say anything more about the matter," he says.

However, Martí saw retirement coming ever closer. Furthermore, none of his four children would be managing the dairy farm when he stopped because they already had jobs in other sectors. "When Agama found out about this, they called me and told me that I didn't have to wait to close it in September 2025 and that I had to do it in December 2024. I was selling them 1.5 million liters of milk and the company wanted to reduce production even further," he says.

contract. Despite this, they gave him a special two-month contract so he would have time to sell the animals he had. he regrets. Martí sold the cows to a man in Galicia, but he still has food left. Agama I should have been willing to let him gradually reduce the number of animals with the goal of closing the dairy peacefully. "But they gave me two months, and I had to balance the animals, the facilities, and the recent investments I'd made." Between 2007 and 2008, the producer invested nearly €300,000, and between 2019 and 2020, another €20,000 in showers and fans for the cows. "And I didn't want to do any more because we saw that closing was coming soon," he admits.