A sector “proud to be a leader” but that must face great challenges for the future. That is the X-ray that Miguel Ángel Higuera, director of the National Association of Pig Cattle Producers (Anprogapor), offered this Wednesday when demanding greater collaboration from public administrations to tackle the health, production or image problems faced by a sector that contributes 1.4% of the national GDP.

Among the health risks, Higuera cited the need to ensure that African swine fever, present in some countries of the European Union for years, does not break into Spain. “We need to do everything in our power to prevent their entry” and not have “serious problems,” she said.

He also pointed out the need to continue working towards animal welfare, especially taking into account the upcoming entry into force of new European regulations to which farms will have to adapt, so that these laws do not have a negative effect. about the market.

Another of its main concerns is the “strong imbalance” that currently exists between Spain’s declining production capacity and its industrialization capacity. “We are losing production capacity, and that is making our industry suffer,” he noted. For this reason, he has asked for a strategic plan that “repositions” the sector and helps “rebalance” the two parts of the chain.

Likewise, he demanded greater visibility for the work carried out by ranchers in the country for “a leading sector that is doing things well and that allows the territory to be structured.”

As a representative of the sector, Higuera moderated a round table in which the four Vox Agriculture Councilors (Aragón, Valencia, Extremadura and Castilla y León) met in Zaragoza to express their support for the sector in the face of the “demonization” that they believe. that suffers. The event was held at the headquarters of the Aragonese Department of Agriculture in front of more than a hundred people, among whom were members of associations, farmers, veterinarians and companies.

The host, the Aragonese councilor Ángel Samper, criticized in the preludes the “ideologization” of a sector that does things “very well”, which causes a “setback” in this activity that translates into price increases and, therefore , limitations on consumption.

Samper also criticized the “free bans” that sometimes come from Europe – they create “terrible unrest” in the rural world, he said – and pointed out that the main challenge of the sector is export, on which pork depends significantly ( 60% go abroad), “especially to China.”

Since it surpassed Catalonia a few years ago, Aragón is the national leader in a sector that currently accounts for 3.55% of the regional GDP and employs more than 21,000 people throughout the community.