Asaja, Upa and Coag ask to regulate by law the "abusive margin" of the oil companies or they will no longer work at a loss

The agrarian organizations Asaja and the Alianza Upa y Coag have warned the Government this Thursday that either it regulates by law the “abusive” margin of profits of the oil companies or they will not endure “much more” working “at a loss”.

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"The ruin of farmers and ranchers is the benefit of the oil companies and also of the Government, some with benefits and others with taxes", denounced the president of Asaja in Castilla y León, Donaciano Dujo, at the gates of the Hydrocarbons Logistic Company (CLH) in Santovenia de Pisuerga (Valladolid), where these three organizations have carried out a protest against the "abusive price of agricultural diesel."

Dujo recalled that last year the price "at this time was 0.80 euros and today 1.60 euros". Thus, he has indicated that an average farm in Castilla y León spends approximately 15,000 liters per year, which means that last year it cost 12,000 euros and this year 24,000 euros. “The cost of diesel has doubled. Our profitability happens because the production costs we have are fair, not abusive, as in this case", he added to emphasize that the total cost of agriculture and livestock in the Community has gone from 320 million last year to the 640 million of it.

“The tractor stops. We are not allowed to work. At this cost we are not profitable. Society is going to have very expensive food. We can't go on like this. We have to put a stop, a brake, a ceiling on the price of fuel and the Government has to lower taxes to have professional diesel, to be able to work, so that our tractor runs, so that our livestock farms work. If not, we are forced to close, ”he added.

For his part, Aurelio González, general secretary of Upa Castilla y León, has delved into the “totally abusive” situation in which the field is found by some companies that have given “scandalous benefits” in 2021.

“These benefits are at the expense of farm workers, farmers, ranchers and the entire society. We are demanding a fair claim, a professional gas oil to be able to continue producing food, which is our job”, he added.

At this point, he has called on the Government to regulate the energy market by law so that the sector has "a social price for agricultural diesel", which is its "working tool".

“We need it now and we have to ask these industries to stop being so speculative, to stop these abusive prices, because today diesel without taxes could be 0.80 and they charge us at 1.50. That's cheeky. The profit margin of oil companies must be regulated by law”, he added.

“They are overflowing their profits”

For his part, the coordinator of Coag in the Community, Lorenzo Rivera, has called the actions of the oil companies "shameful." “While they are overflowing their benefits, we are going to ruin and society too”, he has argued. Cepsa has obtained in the first quarter of this year almost as many profits as in all of 2018 and Repsol almost the same as in all of 2021.

"There is speculation pure and simple, which is what the oil companies are doing and what the government needs to do is intervene in the energy market, also in the fuel market," he continued.

In line with these words, he explained that in the current cereal campaign, which is going to be "bad", they will not reach 2,000 kilograms of production per hectare with fixed production costs of more than 1,000 euros per hectare. “At a loss we cannot work and we will not be able to hold out for a long time. Therefore, intervention. And if more taxes are applied to oil companies, it will result in more prices for us, so that is not the solution. The solution is intervention”, he concluded.