THE LIVESTOCK AND MEAT SECTOR IS COMMITTED TO CONTINUE BUILDING A COUNTRY

The sector's interprofessional organisations promote the Livestock and Meat Forum based on two essential criteria: unity and a firm commitment to the country.
At the presentation ceremony, the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Luis Planas, highlighted the Government's support for the livestock and meat sector "for providing quality food, boosting our exports and giving life to our rural environment".

June 2022. Acting in a coordinated manner to tackle current challenges, such as sustainability and climate change, digitalisation and innovation or the demographic challenge and the structuring of rural Spain, are the strategic axes of the Livestock and Meat Forum, a new initiative of the six interprofessional organisations in the sector that was presented today at the headquarters of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, with the participation of the Minister Luis Planas.

In his speech, the head of the Spanish agri-food sector stressed that "society has to know that it has in our livestock farmers, in the meat sector, one of the pillars on which it can feel reassured", stressing "the need to publicise their work and the advances they are making to produce sustainable food, respectful of the environment and animal welfare".

The minister reiterated the Government's support for the livestock and meat sector "for providing quality food, boosting our exports and giving life to our rural environment", and in relation to EU promotion aid, he said that he shared the sector's concern: "reducing support for meat in promotion without prior discussion of the analyses and the context that lead to this decision is wrong. Spain will defend this position in the EU framework", he concluded.

"All the sectors we represent are united and committed to our country", said the presidents of Interporc, Manuel García, and Interovic, Raúl Muñiz, on behalf of the six interprofessional organisations (Asici, Avianza, Intercun, Interovic, Interporc and Provacuno).

"We are determined to create a strong public-private partnership to enhance the value of our sectors and the work and dedication of the hundreds of thousands of professionals who work in them, not only for the social, economic and territorial value that we already bring, but also, and above all, to anticipate the challenges that society and the market demand of us. It is precisely this alliance that provides the best added value to this initiative", they stressed.

To this end, the Livestock and Meat Forum, which was created with the slogan "Building a country", is committed to three fundamental objectives:

To share with society the chain's efforts to become more sustainable and innovative, hand in hand with economic development.
To make the work and voice of Spanish municipalities more visible.
Develop truthful and transparent communication with the support of the scientific world.

And all of this through the sector's contributions to the Spanish economy, to the structuring of rural Spain and the fixation of population, to sustainability and to digitalisation, innovation and development.

The Spanish livestock-meat sector is a net generator of opportunities for our country: it creates quality jobs, stimulates the areas where it is established and, thanks to its exporting vocation, is promoting the Spain brand throughout the world. And all this, without losing the sector's essence of protecting the territory and the environment, among other reasons, because its very existence depends on it.

The Forum responds to the desire of the livestock-meat chain to promote all advances in sustainability and the efforts and resources
aimed at reducing environmental impact, advancing in the circularity of production and moving towards environmental neutrality and the promotion of a more sustainable environment through significant economic investment in innovation and talent.

At the same time, the Forum also wants to raise awareness of the important efforts being made by the chain and the companies that make it up to tackle a deep integration of digitalisation and innovation processes in the sector's production processes.

The Forum also aims to become, through the Municipal Livestock and Meat Network, the main advocate of the economic and social activities that have enabled the survival of many towns and villages in rural areas. Its purpose is to establish meeting points that make visible the important work of the chain to face the demographic and economic challenges that the country must face, and to promote public-private collaboration between municipalities and the sector.

And finally, the Forum aims to provide quality information on the challenges and actions in the livestock-meat chain. In recent times, biased,
biased and targeted information has become a serious problem that affects the public sector and markets alike. The
contribution of the Forum will be transparency and the incorporation into the social debate of the world of science and research as the best means of
knowledge about the meat-livestock chain and its productions.

The Forum's presentation ceremony included the holding of two expert round tables on "Sustainability and Digitalisation" and "The stakes of the chain in the face of the demographic and generational challenge and equality", moderated by journalists Íñigo Inchusta and Elisa Plumed, with the participation of Manuel Lainez (innovation and sustainability consultant), Carlos Piñeiro (information management systems in livestock farming), Francesc Boya (Secretary General of Demographic Challenge), Margarita Rico (research professor at the University of Valladolid) and Lucía Velasco (livestock farming representative).

Link to the Forum presentation: https://youtu.be/m7HjmGH0tgU
Website: www.forogc.es

The livestock-meat chain
In order to correctly situate the enormous social and economic importance of the livestock-meat chain, we must refer to the millions of families in our country whose lives and development are directly linked to livestock production, industry and meat marketing. More than 2 million people depend on this activity in Spain, from the farmers who grow the cereals and fodder to feed the livestock, to the feed manufacturing industry, livestock farmers, meat industries, the animal health industry, veterinary professionals, the livestock and meat logistics and transport sector, auxiliary industries (agricultural machinery, livestock installations, installations for the industry, refrigeration, etc.), organised distribution (supermarket and hypermarket chains) and specialised retail distribution (butcher's and charcuterie shops).

Livestock farming is carried out on more than 350,000 farms throughout the country and more than half of our activity is located in municipalities with less than 5,000 inhabitants. Livestock farming directly employs more than half a million people and the meat industries and retail trade employ a further 200,000 people. Livestock farming contributes 16,500 million euros to Final Agricultural Production, while the turnover of the meat industry amounts to 31,727 million euros (28.5% of the entire agri-food industrial sector), with 9,107 million euros of exports in 2021 contributing to the country's balance of trade.

More information:
José Manuel Álvarez
Coordinator of the Interprofessional Platform
Ganadero-Cárnicas
[email protected]
646 65 28 46