Forty attendees at IRTA de Monells, in a successful day for the recovery of small slaughterhouses

About forty people filled the auditorium of the IRTA in Monells yesterday, Tuesday, morning to attend a day for the recovery of small slaughterhouses with the collaboration of the Strategic Plan for local development and employment of the Bisbal d Empordà, Forallac, Cruïlles, Monells and Sant Sadurní de l'Heura, Corçà and Ullastret 2023-2028. Organized by the IDRA Urban Research Institute and the Armentera Slaughterhouse, it was done in order to encourage a local economy and a living rural world. Among the attending public, people linked to livestock, butchers and public administration.

Concepció Torras, councilor for Finance, Commerce and Tourism of the Cruïlles, Monells and Sant Sadurní de l'Heura City Council welcomed: "Small slaughterhouses are essential infrastructures to maintain productive land, small active farming and businesses in operation, thus favoring a vibrant local economy and a living rural world.' Torras defended the need to "highlight the importance of local slaughterhouses in supply chains" since they improve animal welfare and reduce the carbon footprint, at the same time they are essential to preserve local production and consumption, promote industrial relocation and promoting food sovereignty and resilience. In this sense, the Department of Agriculture emphasizes its relevance in facilitating transport logistics and local consumption, in accordance with local and European regulations, such as the Strategic Food Plan of Catalonia 2021-2026 and the Green Pact european

The conference served as a forum for debate on the importance of slaughterhouses in a local and artisanal agri-food model. The results of the Singulars project 'El petit escorxador de l'Armentera: social economy and collective governance for food sovereignty and resilience' were presented, and the challenges and measures necessary to reopen these services will be addressed essential. The purpose of the conference is to raise awareness of the reality and strategic importance of municipal slaughterhouses, to contextualize the situation of the sector and the prospects of low-capacity slaughterhouses and, at the same time, to present the operating and management model of the micro-slaughterhouse Armentera as a success story.

In this sense, it is committed to discussing the possibilities of scaling the Armentera model to other slaughterhouses, as a first step towards the creation of a regional slaughterhouse. The aim is to promote the grouping of the sector in a network of low-capacity slaughterhouses in Catalonia and encourage the involvement of the meat sector and institutions in the maintenance of low-capacity slaughterhouses.

One of the objectives is to discuss the possibilities of scaling the Armentera model to other slaughterhouses and take a first step towards the creation of a motor team for the opening of a regional slaughterhouse in Empordà. This objective fits with one of the projects of the Strategic Plan for local development and employment in Bisbal, Forallac, Cruïlles, Monells and Sant Sadurní de l'Heura, Corçà and Ulllastret 2023-2028 which is to study the feasibility and interest of the sector to recondition and reopen the old La Bisbal slaughterhouse, currently inactive.