The Parliamentary Group of the Portuguese Communist Party (PCP) has reminded the Minister of Agriculture Assunçao Cristas of the various initiatives that she championed from 2011 and which seem to have evaporated as soon as she became a minister.
For example she "recommended that the Government urgently provide the investment to open a regional slaughterhouse in the Algarve, in the face of seriousness of the situation and the unbearable financial costs entailed for Algarve producers and the significant increase in the consumer price also resulting from this situation." Now that she is in the government it would seem she is ideally placed to fulfil her promise.
This was but one of the issues raised by the communists during the discussion on the 2014 State Budget which they say needs to include more support for the primary sector in the region, agriculture.
Besides remembering the urgent requirement for a slaughterhouse to reduce travelling time and stress for animals, once put forward by the now-minister herself, the PCP also focussed on the regional production of almonds and figs, the promised dredging of the Ria Formosa and the fisheries agreement with Spain.
The minister was treated to a trip down memory lane as these initiatives that seemed so important back then were trotted out and found to be wanting.
When discussing last year’s State Budget "at that time the Minister assured us that the dredging in the Ria Formosa would start in 2013. However a year later dredging which is necessary from an environmental point of view and an economic standpoint still has not started.
The PCP member accuses Government of having "opted for silence" as these three issues "clearly shows the low priority given by the Government to boost agricultural activities and fishing in the Algarve."
