José Gusmão, MEP from the Left Bloc, met with salt producers in the Algarve, in Castro Marim, and accuses the European Commission of «attacking sustainable salt and destroying the biological seal».
The meeting took place with the Associação de Valorização do Salgado (AVSCM) and Cooperativa Terras do Sal, on behalf of the National Federation of Associations of Artisanal Sea Salt Producers in Portugal, who conveyed their concerns regarding the project for a Delegate Act on salt organic, «whose proposal deceives the consumer as well as going against scientific advice, ignoring the position of the majority of specialists consulted by the European Commission».
The proposal greatly expands the scope of Biological Salt and creates a certification that covers almost all production of food salt.
At issue is the disrespect for organic production rules by assigning the organic label to processes that create cavities, destroy underground areas at great depths, consume excessive energy resources and use geological extraction techniques (as if it were a rare ore). with significant and permanent negative impacts on the soil.
José Gusmão, who was head of the list in the 2022 Legislative Assembly for the Algarve, considered “this decision to ignore the opinion of the majority of experts that the Commission itself appointed to assign the biological seal to salt produced from mining extraction” as absurd.
“This public embarrassment is an attack on the credibility of the label itself. This proposal shows a huge concession to the interests of industrial producers », he added.
The MEP undertook to intervene in the legislative process at the level of the European Parliament. The Bloco de Esquerda also committed to intervening in the National Parliament so that salt production would be framed within the framework of agricultural activity and not as an extractive industry.
Spain, France, Italy and Greece are committed to blocking the document that is on the table in Brussels, and Portugal "should follow the action".
Miguel Silveira stated that the production of sea salt is practically free from the consumption of energy resources, since it uses natural energy in an evaporation process under the direct effect of the sun and wind.
«The only processing steps that require some energy consumption (mainly to obtain fine salt) are drying and milling», he said.
In contrast, mining consumes a significant amount of energy throughout the production and processing phases.
Biologist Anabela Resende found it surprising that, in the Delegated Act, the General Directorate of Agriculture did not exclude the production of rock salt from the biological designation, regardless of the extraction process used.
The text only provides for the exclusion from the list of biological salts those resulting from mining using explosives, but does not exclude those resulting from drilling, cutting and subsoil extraction systems with the use of "continuous grinding".
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