Crises are becoming more frequent, more aggressive and more unpredictable.
Covid.
Inflation.
Energy crisis.
Brutal rise in oil.
Real estate speculation.
Increased logistics costs. Food addiction.
Trade wars.
Interest rates.
Pressure on raw materials.
All of this is no longer an exception.
It became the new normal.
And while the entire world slowly begins to discuss economic security, local production and strategic resilience, Portugal remains virtually without serious debate about self-sufficiency.
The problem is that all these crises completely change people’s lives:
– change consumption habits;
– increase production costs;
– destroy purchasing power;
– put pressure on wages;
– create external dependence;
make countries with small, open economies like Portugal much more vulnerable.
And Portugal is dangerously vulnerable.
Today, we import more than 107 billion euros worth of goods per year.
The agri-food deficit already exceeds 5 billion euros.
Agriculture is worth less than 3% of the national GDP.
The industry has lost structural weight for decades.
And the country has become excessively dependent on tourism, services and imported consumption.
Then one wonders that there are foreign products, almost all of them Spanish packaged by chance, on CP trains.
Or in the military services, where the war food is… Spanish… If one day the border is closed, what happens to the military?
A sadness.
Foreign food is everywhere. In public structures and national supply chains completely dominated by external operators.
This is not modern globalization.
It is completely unnecessary economic dependence.
About that:
– France controls around 17% of the useful agricultural area of the European Union;
– Spain more than 15%;
– large European countries continue to discreetly protect national production, logistics and industry.
Portugal does exactly the opposite, we were paid to do so. The EU pushed us against the wall to stop producing for a few bucks.
We just don’t stop tourism, because the sun and beaches are not for sale. For now…
There remains a few bucks of savings through the exploitation of illegal immigrants, and the sale of passports via golden visas to foreigners. There are fewer and fewer millionaires and more beggars as if their wealth owed them something.
And honestly, I thought. I only write misfortunes that we all already know.
It is time to discuss concrete reforms.
Let’s go.
Top 10 Solutions for Portugal
1. Public procurement with national strategic priority
Solution: Give competitive advantage to Portuguese producers in strategic public purchases.
Stakeholders: Government, CP, hospitals, Armed Forces, local authorities.
2. 15-year national industrial plan
Solution: Reindustrialize critical sectors with aggressive investment and tax incentives.
Stakeholders: Ministry of Economy, AICEP, banks, industry.
3. Portuguese agricultural revolution
Solution: Reduce bureaucracy, facilitate water, land and production scale.
Stakeholders: Ministry of Agriculture, municipalities, cooperatives.
4. Mandatory scaling for SMEs
Solution: Create joint logistics and commercial platforms for small producers.
Stakeholders: Business associations, retail, cooperatives.
5. Pro-production taxation
Solution: Real tax benefits for those who produce, export and industrialize in Portugal.
Stakeholders: Ministry of Finance, AT.
6. Railway and national logistics
Solution: Modernize freight transport and reduce dependence on external roads.
Stakeholders: Portuguese infrastructures, ports, private operators.
7. National supply chains
Solution: Large Portuguese groups integrate more national suppliers.
Stakeholders: Retail, hospitality, food industry.
8. Serious technical education
Solution: Retrain industrial, agricultural and technological technicians.
Stakeholders: Education, IEFP, companies.
9. Minimum food security
Solution: Guarantee minimum national production in critical sectors.
Stakeholders: Agriculture, food industry, cooperatives.
10. Cultural change
Solution: Portugal stops thinking it’s normal to import everything.
Participants: Everyone.
Because no country survives constant crises without its own capacity.
And Portugal continues to act as if the next crisis would never appear.
It will appear.
At that time there is no Sun to save us.
We have to be prepared.
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