Cooperatives regret that Carob has been awarded to a real estate company and warn of the loss of the agri-food industry

PalmaCooperatives Agroalimentàries Illes Balears regretted this Wednesday that the Carob production unit has finally been awarded to a company external to the producer and cooperative sector, specifically a real estate company. The entity has expressed its support for the proposal presented by Camp Mallorquí, which planned to maintain the carob transformation activity linked to producers and the territory.

In a statement, the organization warned that the loss of the agri-food industry "puts the sector's future at risk", especially at a time when the Islands have fewer and fewer companies dedicated to the processing of local products.

The president of Cooperatives Agroalimentàries Illes Balears, Jerònima Bonafé, highlighted the effort made by Camp Mallorquí to try to give continuity to Carob within the same productive field. According to Bonafé, the cooperative's proposal "represented an opportunity to maintain an industry rooted in the territory, a benchmark in the carob sector and capable of generating added value to such a unique product as carob". The initiative, she explained, allowed to maintain the entire value chain, from production to processing and marketing.

"It is a shame that the few industries that remain are lost"

The cooperative leader has particularly regretted that a company linked to the handling and processing of a local product has ended up in bankruptcy proceedings. "With the few agri-food industries left in the Balearic Islands, it is a shame that companies linked to the handling of local products are being forced into bankruptcy proceedings," she pointed out.

Cooperatives Agroalimentàries has also claimed the role of Camp Mallorquí and its "effort and commitment" to preserve the industrial activity and the agri-food fabric of the Islands. The entity considers that maintaining this type of industry is especially important because it allows the value generated by agricultural products to remain partly within the territory and reinforces the link between producers and processing companies.

A sector pressured by drought and rising costs

Bonafé recalled that the agricultural sector also has a role that goes beyond food production, as it contributes to conserving the territory, maintaining the landscape, and moving towards a more sustainable model in the Islands.

All this, he pointed out, occurs in an increasingly complex context for farmers and ranchers, marked by drought, the effects of climate change, pests, the increase in production costs, and the loss of profitability. In this scenario, Cooperatives Agro-alimentàries believes that the disappearance of industries linked to the producer sector can further aggravate the difficulties for farmers to market and obtain value from their products. The loss of Carob, according to the entity, thus represents a blow to the agro-food fabric of the Islands and to the capacity to transform and market local products.