Spain: The Government urges supermarkets to prioritize Spanish products

During his last telematic meeting, Minister Planas asked the sector´s employers’ associations to place Spanish products “in prominent places on their shelves” to help national farmers.

Consuma productos locales

On Monday, the Government asked supermarket chains to prioritize Spanish products and place them “in prominent places on their shelves”, as well as helping those foodstuffs “that have suffered most from the closure of bars and restaurants” as a result of the pandemic.

The Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Luis Planas, conveyed this request during the telematics meeting he held with the sector's employers’ associations: Asedas (wich includes Mercadona, DIA and a dozen regional groups), ACES (to which Carrefour, Lidl, Alcampo, El Corte Inglés and Eroski supermarkets belong) and Anged (hypermarkets).

According to Ministry sources, food retailers have also been urged to support “seasonal and local produce”.

Cola en súper

The Government is carrying out “a close monitoring of price evolution” and for the moment “no anomalous situation has been recorded remarkable”, they said.

At the meeting, Minister Planas called for “strengthening communication” within the food chain to “achieve greater balance and fairer distribution of value” and thus protect especially the weakest part, the farmers.

In this sense, the minister asked the retail “to make an effort to avoid the trivialization of certain products and to work together to increase farmers’ prestige in the eyes of society”.

In adittion to this, advertising campaigns and other initiatives in favor of the consumption of local and proximity products are increasingly appearing all over the country.

The reasons given are several: increased support for local trade and production to revitalize the national economy, support for small local shops, which are suffering greatly from the crisis, help for farmers promoting direct sales to consumers, improvement of the environment through consumption of seasonal products, etc.

An example of this is the new campaign of the Andalusian Regional Government “Llena tu mesa de Andalucía” (Fill your table with Andalusian products).

Llena tu mesa de Andalucía

Thus, the regional authorities intend to strengthen the productive sectors seriously threatened by the pandemic. At the same time, it offers citizens the opportunity to say “thank you” and to reward the sacrifice of farmers, who continue to supply the markets.

Several sources