Environmental disaster in Spain: Aldi is now holding farmers accountable

A report on the German TV broadcaster WDR about the environmental disaster in the Mar Menor has consequences.

The discounter Aldi is asking its Spanish fruit and vegetable suppliers to comment on the allegations of polluting the Mar Menor.

Cartagena - The environmentalists have not achieved much, the politicians hesitate and hesitate, the farmers just carry on as before.

The result: the Mar Menor, Europe's largest inland sea, is dying *.

Now an important company has stepped in: The German supermarket chains Aldi Süd and Aldi Nord * are asking what is actually going on with their main suppliers of fruit and vegetables from Campo de Cartagena in the south of Spain *.

Aldi sent letters to 80 producers on the Mar Menor and asked for an opinion and clarification because of the "serious environmental violations" in the Mar Menor *.

If the company's principles of dealing responsibly with the environment and natural resources are not adhered to, the end of the cooperation is threatened, it said.

Aldi interferes in the Mar Menor case: "Let fish die for cheap fruit and vegetables?"

Aldi responded to a TV report about the ecological disaster on the Mar Menor on the Mediterranean coast of Spain.

The film was shown on October 20th in the broadcast “Markt” on WDR and started with the question “Let fish die for cheap fruit and vegetables?” The documentary deals with the great fish deaths in the Mar Menor in August *.

As in October 2019, this time tons of dead fish were washed up on the banks of the tourist strongholds on the Mar Menor.

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Ecological disaster on the Mar Menor: fish suffocate in the polluted lagoon.

© Greenpeace / Pedro Martínez Rodríguez

The main cause is sewage from the agricultural industry, including suppliers to Aldi.

Residues containing salt, nitrates and phosphates from the desalination of groundwater and from fertilizers are illegally discharged into the Mar Menor.

The consequences are an explosion in algae production, a lack of oxygen in the lagoon and the suffocation of living things.

Aldi interferes in the Mar Menor case: important economic sector of Murcia in the pillory

The 80 fruit and vegetable growers on the Mar Menor, who were contacted by Aldi, are charged with operating illegal desalination plants from 2017 to 2021 and channeling the highly polluted wastewater into the Mar Menor. Aldi does not consider the argument of the accused that the high groundwater level is to blame, which allows contaminated water to seep into the lagoon, to be credible, as there is a lack of water in the Murcia region * in the dry southeast of Spain. Aldi operates a total of 15 supermarkets in the Murcia region, including in the Mar Menor communities of Cartagena, Los Alcázares and San Javier.

Aldi's letter campaign has alarmed politics in Murcia.

The region, in which agriculture is one of the most important economic pillars, cannot afford an economic catastrophe after the environmental catastrophe *.

The state minister for agriculture from the conservative PP, Antonio Luengo, immediately contacted the Spanish ambassador to Germany and asked for a quick meeting with those responsible from Aldi to convince them of the quality of the fruit and vegetables and how environmental protection is taken seriously in Murcia.

Aldi interferes in the Mar Menor case: right-wing extremists get upset, farmers stay cool

The right-wing extremist party Vox accused Aldi of playing judges, juries and executioners and driving the Murcian producers into ruin. According to the right, the environmental disaster in the Mar Menor only exists in the imagination of the left. The farmers on the Mar Menor seem to keep calm, as the newspaper "La Verdad" reports. Such communications between trading partners are "very common," they say. The producers in the region would "continue to work as usual, since most customers have full confidence in our work". In addition, farmers seem to be convinced that the vast majority praise the sustainability measures that have been implemented over the past five years. However, the praised measures could not prevent the great fish deaths in August. * Costa news.com is an offer from IPPEN.MEDIA