ANFACO WARNS THAT THE COST OF TRANSPORT, ENERGY AND STEEL LEAVES THE CANNING SECTOR ON THE ROPES

The business association ANFACO-CECOPESCA, has shown its concern about the uncertainty arising from the serious economic tensions that currently exist in the market.

They point out that being the canning an essential and strategic sector of the economy, as was latent in these almost two years of health crisis, and assumed its leadership in the provision of safe and healthy seafood products to citizens, now suffers the consequences of the post-pandemic effects.

To this must be added an unstoppable rise in prices. With steel and aluminum materials or energy at historic highs in the face of a winter that is becoming long and cold, logistics stuck in bottlenecks and whose shipping companies have no signs of normalization, or raw materials revolutionized with a constant and unpredictable progression that even generates minimum contract periods in record time, expectations are at their highest.

According to Juan M. Vieites, secretary general of ANFACO, “at a time that was supposed to be a key moment for the recovery of the economy, even for the reindustrialization of the productive fabric, planning points to discouragement due to a lack of accurate forecasts. The commercial agreements are more difficult than ever, with a continuity in permanent doubt that affects the safety of the flow of operations and that alludes, directly, to the term shortage of supplies”.

For Vieites, the priority of the business community is employment. “With 15,000 workers in Spain, the canning industry is responsible for providing wealth in coastal areas dependent on its activity, and that currently could be affected”. He also stresses that “the industries need to import raw materials and organize just-in-time production to be efficient and competitive with third countries. An environment of stock ruptures, or lack of logistic means by land, sea and air, gives a glimpse of the complex situation currently being experienced in the sector”.

ANFACO’s general secretary also adds that “it is time to express our current concern, which is aimed at the very future viability of the activity. We must alert that, as the first European power, we cannot afford to lose the generation of added value and employment, and for which we request the sensitivity of the Administration to work on urgently improving the situation”.

The general data speak for themselves. The collapse in container transport has even raised the cost by 600%, fuel oil and natural gas have doubled their values by 100%, and the price of electricity has increased by 200% with respect to 2020. In addition to this scenario, there is the increase in tinplate and aluminum containers, marked by decisions in China and the United States, which already pointed in the raw materials market at the beginning of the year over 40% in an unprecedented ‘rally’.

For ANFACO-CECOPESCA is of vital importance that the European Union take action urgently and in a coordinated manner with international impact, given the fragile situation in the European environment of the Spanish canned continuously demanding a level playing field, to provide only 50% of consumption of canned tuna in the EU.