The Secretary General of State of the Ministry of Agriculture, Carlos Cabanas, visited the Incarlopsa facilities in Tarancon today, having been met at the entrance to the offices by the Chief Executive Officer of the meat producer, Clemente Loriente, and both of them talked to the local media.
Clemente Loriente thanked Carlos Cabanas for his visit, stating that “it is very important to us, and we have always said that we like welcoming government representatives as we depend on them so much, and we are extremely pleased that they have paid us a visit on the occasion of the installation of the new slaughterhouse we believe is one of the most modern in Europe”. He commented that they have known each other for a long time and that they enjoy excellent support both at the regional and national level. He went on to say that this is the way it should be, the relationship between the government and business entities should be close-knit, above all for the international market. Loriente underlined the fact that “we have begun exporting; we are new to the field and we need them to help us gain approvals in the countries to which we can export, to enable us to conduct our business and to expand our activities”.
In turn, the Secretary of State of the Ministry of Agriculture thanked the company for having invited him and announced that the Minister is interested in visiting the company; “she has assured me that she will be coming, as this slaughterhouse is an example of how the internationalisation of our agri-food product sector needs to be carried out”. He also underlined the fact that this sector is one of the most important in terms of exports, indeed, one in every five items exported is from the agri-food sector, and one of the most thriving products in the agrarian sector is pork, so our presence in foreign markets is essential. “We export 50,000 million a year, and pork is a flagship sector in foreign markets”, a sector that has suffered significantly in recent years due to sanitary issues; “in order to export we need high levels of sanitation, the pork sector is our 4th biggest export sector worldwide, that is, we are the number 1 exporter of olive oil and our wine exports are going well, but we need to be a forerunner in the pork sector, a product that is produced all over the world, where the competition is tougher, and this market requires a level of capacity that our industries have. Incarlopsa is one of the most important companies we have in this sector, and they help us in our obligation to continue to find new markets”, as the export capacity of meat has risen 4-fold.
Mechanisms of assistance provided by the Ministry
Carlos Cabanas stressed that the Ministry negotiates with third countries the conditions required to be able to export. “When you negotiate with another country, you need to persuade them that you guarantee safety; that you have the appropriate veterinarian controls and monitoring systems to ensure any product exported from Spain to that country will comply with all the applicable sanitary requirements pursuant to their laws”. The aim is to persuade the different Ministries in the different countries that our sanitary conditions with regard to both animal health and phytosanitary health are excellent, in order to expand our markets.
In other words, what we do is guarantee these countries that Spanish products meet all the requirements they demand. We can export to many countries, but “we need to know exactly where to go, which countries have the necessary business capacity, after which we can contact the authorities of the country in question for them to define their conditions and for us to submit the information required to enable us to export”.
Spain has lines of economic aid for its industries, indeed over the last few years companies have been receiving aid through rural development plans, “in addition to other investments from the company itself, because if you want to export then you obviously need to invest, as Incarlopsa has done, to ensure compliance with all the requirements of the third country in question”. There are also promotions, advertising initiatives bearing the Spain brand and providing a guarantee of your quality.
Authorisation for almond farm
In this regard, Clemente Loriente commented that “the company believes we have complied with all the parameters demanded of us by the Regional Government in relation to environmental laws, and as we have always said, we won´t do anything people don´t want. We have more projects underway and we hope they will bear fruit just as this one has done. The company plans to open more sow farms, several projects are ongoing, others are being managed as feed farms, and “we continue on the road towards our goal, which is to create a livestock hub compatible with the farmer and which allows us to have a supply of raw material close to the slaughterhouse”, whereby this farm and this environmental permit represents another step in the process the company put into motion a long time ago.
News article published by Tarancón Digital.