Producers raise petition in hope plant can be reopened
The closure of the country’s last wool washing plant in Guarda threatens the entire wool industry, warns the Association of Agricultural Producers.
Ovibeira has launched a petition in the hope that a traditional industry can be saved.
The objective is to gather enough signatures (7,500) for the matter to be discussed in parliament. As of this afternoon, the petition has amassed a little below 4,600 signatures.
SIC Notícias travelled up to Guarda to hear the problems affecting producers who already make ‘practically nothing’ from the sale of ‘virgin wool’. They all stem from the fact that the factory that washes the wool – enabling its transformation into all kinds of items created by Ovibeira in partnership with other companies – was never given permission to channel its wastewaters into the local ETAR (wastewater treatment plant).
Ricardo Tavares, of Têxteis Manuel Rodrigues Tavares SA, tells SIC that the council initially got the company to discharge into a local river, saying it would be a ‘temporary solution’. This solution then became permanent, and the resulting pollution to the river from all the discharges meant the company had to stop washing. It hasn’t stopped preparing wool that arrives from producers (over four tons of it every year) though, as the hope remains that Águas de Portugal (which is now in charge of water management and supplies in the area) will find a solution.
Without one, the country’s wool industry will simply curl up and die. Producers make so little from selling sheared wool that it is barely ‘cost effective’. If they had to transport the wool to Spain in order for it to be ‘transformed’ for onward use after being transported back across the border to Portugal, the costs involved would make no sense at all, and render any item made much more expensive.
Some of the many items marketed through Ovibeira
Source material: SIC/ Facebook
