Mounting Council Debts, Onions That Don’t Make You Weep
Yesterday’s main headline : ‘Councils Owe €211 Million – the bulk of the debt is owed to the banks on long term arrangements, but they also affect suppliers. On average, each Madeira câmara resident in theory owes €852′. That latter figure depends on your location of course, but if you live in Porto Moniz the council debt per head of population works out at €1,792 (worst) and in Câmara de Lobos €625 (best). It’s a long statistical article giving the debt breakdown for all the councils, but it almost pales into insignificance when you work out the the debt owed by the Regional Government, of over one billion Euros, or over €4,000 per head of population of accumulated debt. This story pops up every few months, usually with increasing debt figures, and I think the Diário editor keeps it in his drawer marked ‘reoccurring headlines to be used before elections’. The full debt picture is here : CÂMERA DEBTS
The Regional Director of Agriculture, Bernardo Araújo, said on Friday at the opening of the Onion Festival in Caniço (not the other one that was cancelled in Caniçal), that the Madeirans are responding positively to the message to buy local produce in preference to imported goods. On the topic of onions, he spoke of increasing production over the last 8 years, with 2000 producing 1,560 tonnes, compared to last year with an output of 1,820 tonnes. Total revenues during that period have risen from less than €1 million to €2.2 million. Also the number of farmers exporting onions has risen from 125 to 175.
