The sharp increase in the price of energy and food puts the Balearic business community on alert, which little by little begins to demand measures so that the cost of the general economy does not disband in a complex context for Europe due to the war in Ukraine which has been two weeks.

If the tourism SOS appeared two years ago, now the employers’ association PIMEM (Federació de la Petita i Mitjana Empresa de Mallorca) is launching the energy SOS. The president of the entity, Jordi Mora, “assures that it cannot continue to function in this way and that the data handled by the employers is that by June or July there may be a rise in inflation of 10%, a situation that Spain did not see since 1985”. For this reason Mora proposes an urgent measure; lower, albeit temporarily, VAT on energy products from 21% to 10%.

PIMEM assures that before the war began there were already many companies affected by the COVID crisis and just now that a recovery was expected and, due to the good forecasts for the high season, SMEs are immersed in a rise in fixed costs as a result of the rise in electricity prices.

Jordi Mora, president of PIMEM. Photo: PIMEM.

other voices

The ADNEA Nautical Association, through its president Alex Casares, assures that “the rise in production costs affects the costs of our facilities in addition to the price increases in supplies, including a lack of metal supplies so that the factories can produce.”

Toni Garí, president of CONSTRUÏM, assures that “the situation may lead to the paralysis of certain industries such as the steel industry”. “Any strike in the transport sector is also worrying, since 3 months ago we experienced a complicated situation by having to stop production due to lack of raw materials.”

APAEMA, the Association of Producers and Producers of Ecological Agriculture of Mallorca, assures in the mouth of its president Miquel Coll that the main effects are being noticed in the consumption of diesel B, fertilizers and the viability of irrigation with groundwater. We also want to highlight the increases experienced by food for animals”.

Rafel Sotomayor, president of ARIMPA, (association of repairers, installers and maintainers of automatic doors) assures that “the main concern is a possible transport strike since the material simply will not arrive, although it is true that the sector consumes a lot of diesel per its dynamics of transporting and assembling doors”.

The Restoration sector through RBC-Mallorca expresses its concern with a concrete example of an establishment of the association and that the president Eugènia Cusí has explained. “In the last meeting held, a partner taught us that in January 2021 he paid about €20 a day for electricity, about €625 a month now in 2022, €1,828. I believe that the example is more illustrative than any reflection”.