Farms blocked and farms at the mercy of bureaucracy , which cuts off farmers' legs more than swine fever . The desperation of agricultural entrepreneurs ignites in the face of the stoppage that has been blocking pigs on farms for about 20 days , forbidding meat to cross the gates despite the derogations also allowing it from the so-called " red areas ". Thus, without the authorizations to take the animals (in perfect health) to the slaughterhouse, the work stops . And discontent is growing among those who have decided to stick to the rules .
«Unfortunately, I who have always believed in legality with deeds - as Stefano Arzu, breeder of Talana bluntly states -, by carrying the flag high I find myself being mocked by those who instead have chosen another path because I continue to be treated in their same way but unlike them I pay the consequences dearly because in the meantime my pigs being in the light of the sun cannot be slaughtered with the further paradox that I will also be forced to pay hefty penalties because I will have more animals than those allowed for my company. I've been paying for being in order for years . Although a positive animal has never been found in my company, they constantly deprive me of selling pigs first for cases of positivity in other farms and now that they have also liberalized sales outside Sardinia they have confined me in a red zone and cannot give me answers. They are forcing me to open the gates and release the pigs"
In Santa Maria Navarrese the situation does not change. «For about 20 days they have practically confiscated my breeding because I can't sell the piglets to the slaughterhouse nor the pigs for life - says Simone Perino -. There is a confused system incapable of giving us answers which, even more so, ignores the consequences that they cause us: unsold animals that remain on the farm, consequently increasing production costs. They force me to live with animals that in the meantime go off the market . Furthermore, we are extending the summer farrowings of the sows, compromising me also the best season for sales, with the serious risk of being fined for excess numbers of animals».
The president of Coldiretti Nuoro Ogliastra Leonardo Salis has no doubts: «It is an unsustainable situation . In this way they condemn themselves to the closure of the virtuous companies that we should have rewarded for the work and courage they have had in saving an entire sector. Instead, not even the ordinary is done forcing them in one of the worst economic crises to additional expenses while blocking the revenues at the same time. We need clarity, the mechanism is jammed but no one bothers to unlock it. The bureaucracy has now taken over blocking the whole system, even payments are perpetually late ».
«Those who pay for the negligence of others are always the weak link, in this case the breeders – underlines the director of Coldiretti Nuoro Ogliastra Alessandro Serra -. There is fury with the most tormented farmers for the past 40 years, those of pigs, who in December should have rejoiced in words for the go-ahead finally obtained from Europe for exports after 11 consecutive years of embargo but who instead after being relegated to the red zone, with the promise of equal dignity thanks to the exceptions, today they are once again victims of bureaucracy".
(Unioneonline/vf)
