A rancher sent 49 emails to Ayuso to demand that he comply with the law and received no response

Eugenio de la Morena is the rancher who has written 49 emails to Isabel Díaz Ayuso.

One every day for more than two months, excluding weekends, which is when she lets her rest.

But she has not received a response.

“Look, she is the second person to whom I have written the most in my life,” he shows on his mobile.

The first is not a person, it is the General Directorate of Livestock of the Community of Madrid, which has not answered either.

And he is desperate.

Pissed off and in the red.

And to explain it, he launches a simple idea: the primary sector is dying.

He does it and sets himself as an example.

It costs him more to produce the milk from his cows than what the distributor pays him, the second link in the chain, the one who collects the product to treat it and sell it to supermarkets.

And the best to understand his problem, and that of the entire sector,

nothing like the numbers, so he throws them on the run: “It costs me to produce 48.65 euros per ton.

And they pay me 41. Shall I do the accounts?

I have lost 10,500 euros every month for two years”.

And that is what he denounces.

That in Madrid the state law of the food chain is not complied with, which stipulates precisely that, that the producer cannot be paid less than what it costs him to produce.

For this reason, even the president of the region has written.

49 times.

Now she prepares the mail number 50.

that the producer cannot be paid less than what it costs him to produce.

For this reason, even the president of the region has written.

49 times.

Now prepare mail number 50.

that the producer cannot be paid less than what it costs him to produce.

For this reason, even the president of the region has written.

49 times.

Now prepare mail number 50.

The 49-year-old rancher moves around his land with a limp, because he had surgery on both knees, but he doesn't stand still for a second.

He just fired a guy he's been working with for 12 years.

He was like family.

He has even gone to the communions of his children.

But Eugenio has not been paid for months and it is increasingly difficult for him to pay the payroll of his workers.

"He has understood, of course, he told me: 'Chief, we can't fight against the system," he says.

So, to get out of the system, he himself has taken him by car to the unemployment offices and has helped him fix his papers.

And now he is doing the math to squeeze in schedules, since in one year this family farm in Colmenar Viejo has seen its workforce halve: there are only two other workers left, his brother Diego, with whom he shares responsibility for the farm, and the.

“And a boy who plays co-turns.

Nothing more".

No wonder he doesn't know what it's like to go on vacation or enjoy a weekend with his wife.

He works, works and works.

No holidays.

No Christmas.

No summer.

“I am the one who works so that people have their coffee with milk for breakfast in the morning,” he recalls.

He is in charge of 480 heads of cattle that roam through an idyllic landscape between the mountains of Colmenar Viejo, a land where "208

that he inherited from his father;

this one he made from his grandfather;

that of his great-grandfather;

the other from his great-great-grandfather... “I have data on this farm from 1816, my ancestors were here.

I have old papers.

I have data on the sale of milk that came in cans, in reais.

But realize, what two world wars and a civil war have not achieved... that a rule of law achieves... seems sad to me”.

He speaks bitterly as he points to his cows and regrets having sent 60 of them to the slaughterhouse in the last year, animals that he has seen being born and which he had nothing to feed them, double what he used to send before, “when their life cycle was over”.

Diego de la Morena, Eugenio's brother, at the cow farm they both own in Colmenar Viejo. DAVID EXPÓSITO

But the problem of this farm is not an exception.

A decade ago, more than 100 farmers were dedicated to the dairy market in the Madrid region.

Now 28 survive, according to data provided by the PP deputy Ángel Ramos Sánchez in an Environment commission on April 19.

Some data that is ahead of the officials, who still put them at 33, because the five farms that have lowered their blinds in recent months have not been updated, have sold their cattle and have given in to a system against which Eugenio fights based on emails, claims and sing the forty to everyone who gets in front of him.

That was what happened in that commission, the one on April 19.

Adolfo Galván, the president of the association of dairy farmers (Agaprol) was invited and appeared accompanied by Eugenio, vice president, who spoke and made a heated, personal and unappealable speech.

The only person present who contradicted him in something was Sánchez himself, who assured that the Ayuso government "could still do more" but defended and was concerned about the field.

"Lies," Eugenio replied.

“Movement is demonstrated by moving.

And it doesn't hurt me to say it: I'm on the right, clearly.

But I feel the same with a man from United We Can, as with one from More Madrid, as with a socialist.

As long as they claim what I think is fair: enforce the law.

During the intervention, it seemed that there were bedbugs in the seat of the general director of Livestock, Ángel de Oteo Mancebo, who was placed just behind the PP deputy, and who was trying to defend himself from the data provided by the rancher with a fuss, snorting, moving in the seat, passing papers to his partner.

But Eugenio had arrived with a well-crafted speech.

And he was not daunted:

"That you are playing with a life project (...) that you go out filling your mouth, the picture, but what shame is that?

It's not even a bullfighter's shame.

I do not support subsidies.

The livestock sector does not want subsidies, let's see if it is clear to politicians.

We want to be paid for our product.”

The farmers sign an annual contract with the distributor in April of each year.

At that time they set the price of what they will receive for each ton of milk.

He reluctantly agrees to lose 10,500 euros a month, "because if I don't sign anything I keep the milk and it's much worse."

"And I tell you one thing, we will run out of milk, but then it will come from outside and you will complain about how expensive it is," he warns.

A farm employee in the space where the cows are milked. DAVID EXPÓSITO

The reform of the food chain approved by the Congress of Deputies entered into force on December 16, 2021 and seeks to balance commercial relations, through the transposition of the community directive on unfair commercial practices.

The Spanish Parliament approved, with the votes against of PP and Vox, the obligation that the prices established in the contracts respect the production costs of the primary producers and that, in addition, in each of the successive transactions they respect the production costs of each of the previous links.

That defends Eugenio de la Morena tooth and nail.

But the Ministry of the Environment of Madrid replies that this rule "is very difficult to fit into the framework of the market economy, based on supply and demand, where there is no room for price intervention."

Although, yes, he admits that “it is up to the autonomous communities to carry out the controls, where it is verified that the contracts and declarations are in accordance with the law and, therefore, meet the requirements established by law.

But in no case are the autonomies assigned supervisory tasks.

What happens then when they detect that a producer is paid less than what he touches?

Are there fines?

Something?

There has been no response from the Ministry.

Eugenio, however, sums it up quickly: “They don't do anything.

Zero.

And I don't mind saying it, it's a crime, this government is prevaricating”.

The farmer has lost 38 kilos, he does not sleep, anxiety eats him, day and night.

So he prepares the next mail for Ayuso, whom he recognizes, voted in the last elections.

“What if I will repeat next year?

No. No way”.

Of course, he is still on the right.

It is what it is.

But he will not be hurt in pledge to support whoever obeys the law.

Whoever it.

A law to save the first producer

Before the law approved at the end of 2021, the field looked towards the one of 2013, which was approved in Congress with the Rajoy government, when the value chain was regulated, which explains that no producer can sell at a loss in all kinds of agrarian systems.

Later, a Royal Decree of 2020 arrived, which insisted on that idea, typified the sanctions and the data of the companies that do not comply with the Royal Decree were made public.

The new law of 2021 supposes, however, an important change of culture in the commercial relations between the operators of the chain.

Since its entry into force, it has been operating and ex officio investigations and sanctioning proceedings are underway, according to the Ministry of Agriculture.

In addition, the sanctions will be public (once they are firm and no appeal is admitted).

With it, the catalog of unfair commercial practices has been increased and new infractions are included, toughening some of those already foreseen.

To coordinate compliance with the law, the Food Information and Control Agency (AICA) has been created, which is the Autonomous Body of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food in charge of sanctioning infractions.

The AICA, says the Ministry, is a priority and has seen its budget increase in 2022 with 9.3 million euros, which represents an increase of 13% compared to the previous year.

AICA must coordinate with the autonomous communities, with which it forms a committee so that the inspections carried out follow their legal course.

The Community of Madrid has not responded to this newspaper how many inspections in which it has detected infractions it has communicated to AICA in the last year. 

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