Primary Sector Allocates €150,000 to Employ 8 New Technicians for Phylloxera Control
Vice President Lope Afonso and the Minister of the Primary Sector, Valentín González, met yesterday (Wednesday, 3rd) with over 150 grape growers from the Tacoronte Acentejo Regulatory Council, announcing an urgent meeting of the Wine Table for next Monday.
Vice President of the Cabildo, Lope Afonso, and the Minister of Primary Sector, Valentín González, met yesterday (Wednesday, 3rd) with over 150 grape growers from the Tacoronte Acentejo Regulatory Council in the municipality of Tacoronte. This meeting is part of a series of gatherings taking place across Tenerife’s wine regions, involving representatives from the Cabildo and the Government of the Canary Islands, aimed at updating on the measures being implemented to control phylloxera.
Lope Afonso and Valentín González announced that the Cabildo has formalised a commitment to GMR (Gestion del Medio Rural), an agency under the Government of the Canary Islands, amounting to nearly €150,000, to hire 8 new technicians dedicated to combating this pest. This will augment the existing team of 22 Agricultural Extension technicians and an additional 9 technicians assigned to various services within the Cabildo’s Agriculture area, who have already conducted over 1,600 inspections across the island.
The Vice President emphasised “the absolute commitment of the island institution to prevent the spread of phylloxera across the island”. On this issue, he revealed that “the outbreak is very localised (so far, only 50 plants have been affected by the pest) and we will continue to work alongside the Government of the Canary Islands to ensure that this remains the case”.
Afonso highlighted “the crucial role of the grape growers themselves, who are our eyes in the Tenerife countryside, with whom we are closely collaborating to achieve the goal of controlling the phylloxera outbreak detected at the end of July in Valle de Guerra”.
Minister Valentín González echoed this sentiment, stressing the significance of adding these 8 technicians as “we are in the midst of the harvest season, so we must utilise all available resources to carry out necessary inspections of the vineyards and produce the required reports outlined in the order issued by the Government of the Canary Islands, in order to minimise disruption to grape growers and other economic agents involved in this sector.”
These informational meetings with grape growers have been held in various wine-producing areas of the island and will continue this afternoon in the Valle de Guerra area, where the phylloxera outbreak was identified at the end of July.
Islands Wine Table
Afonso and González announced that “we have convened the Islands Wine Table on an urgent basis for this Monday (8th September), with the aim of providing all available information to the various stakeholders in the wine sector, involving them in the fight against this pest, which does not affect the quality of Tenerife wine, but threatens the life of the vineyards.”
