Eat up and help Valencia

VALENCIAN Community residents were urged to consume more regional products to counteract Russia’s import veto.

This could have grave consequences for the region, said Generalitat vice-president Jose Ciscar, who also heads the region’s department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food.

It will negatively affect the region’s fruit and vegetable-growing industry, whose direct exports to Russia totalled €151 million last year, Ciscar warned.

His department is launching a campaign to encourage the region to turn to local produce. “We have to help the local economy and our agricultural sector by becoming principal clients for our quality products.”

Citrus fruit, dessert grapes, pomegranates and persimmons are all suffering the after-effects of the Russian veto, Ciscar added.

Important measures would emerge from the national government’s Cabinet meeting scheduled for September 5, Ciscar predicted. Regional president Alberto Fabra would be talking to Agriculture minister Isabel Garcia Tejerina to give details of the region’s needs, he said.