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ANIMAL CRUELTY

Spain to install video surveillance in abattoirs

Spanish slaughterhouses will have to install video surveillance to ensure animals are not mistreated before being killed, the government announced Tuesday, claiming a first in the EU.

Published: 24 August 2022 09:08 CEST

spain video surveillance abbatoirs

Under the Spanish rules, abattoirs will be required to retain the video images for later verification by the authorities. (Photo by Damien MEYER / AFP)

“This rule puts Spain at the forefront of Europe in this area and, as well as ensuring the welfare of animals during their passage through abattoirs, it also improves food safety guarantees for consumers,” said Consumer Affairs Minister Alberto Garzón.

The measure was approved at Tuesday’s cabinet meeting and will now be pushed quickly through parliament for approval.

It has already been agreed with the industry, government spokesperson Isabel Rodríguez told a press conference.

“We will be the first country in the European Union to have a compulsory video surveillance system in abattoirs,” said the consumer affairs ministry of Pedro Sánchez’s left-wing government.

Guillermo Moreno, executive director of Equalia, an NGO that lobbied for the reform, told AFP he was satisfied with what he called “a necessary and important first step to raise animal welfare standards in abattoirs”.

He added that England, Scotland and Israel had already introduced the measure in their slaughterhouses.

Under the Spanish rules, abattoirs will be required to retain the video images for later verification by the authorities.

“Large abattoirs have one year to implement the new standard” with smaller operations granted two years, the ministry said.

READ ALSO: Your views – Is Spanish meat good quality?

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'Extreme' climate blamed for world's worst wine harvest in 62 years

“Extreme environmental conditions” including droughts, fires and other problems with climate were mostly to blame for the drastic fall, said the International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV) that covers nearly 50 wine producing countries.

Australia and Italy suffered the worst, with 26 and 23 percent drops. Spain lost more than a fifth of its production. Harvests in Chile and South Africa were down by more than 10 percent.

The OIV said the global grape harvest was the worst since 1961, and worse even than its early estimates in November.

In further bad news for winemakers, customers drank three per cent less wine in 2023, the French-based intergovernmental body said.

Director John Barker highlighted “drought, extreme heat and fires, as well as heavy rain causing flooding and fungal diseases across major northern and southern hemisphere wine producing regions.”

Although he said climate problems were not solely to blame for the drastic fall, “the most important challenge that the sector faces is climate change.

“We know that the grapevine, as a long-lived plant cultivated in often vulnerable areas, is strongly affected by climate change,” he added.

France bucked the falling harvest trend, with a four percent rise, making it by far the world’s biggest wine producer.

Wine consumption last year was however at its lowest level since 1996, confirming a fall-off over the last five years, according to the figures.

The trend is partly due to price rises caused by inflation and a sharp fall in wine drinking in China – down a quarter – due to its economic slowdown.

The Portuguese, French and Italians remain the world’s biggest wine drinkers per capita.

Barker said the underlying decrease in consumption is being “driven by demographic and lifestyle changes. But given the very complicated influences on global demand at the moment,” it is difficult to know whether the fall will continue.

“What is clear is that inflation is the dominant factor affecting demand in 2023,” he said.

Land given over to growing grapes to eat or for wine fell for the third consecutive year to 7.2 million hectares (17.7 million acres).

But India became one of the global top 10 grape producers for the first time with a three percent rise in the size of its vineyards.

France, however, has been pruning its vineyards back slightly, with its government paying winemakers to pull up vines or to distil their grapes.

The collapse of the Italian harvest to its lowest level since 1950 does not necessarily mean there will be a similar contraction there, said Barker.

Between floods and hailstones, and damp weather causing mildew in the centre and south of the country, the fall was “clearly linked to meteorological conditions”, he said.

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