Palma.The standards body which acts as a regulator for the manufacture and production of the Majorcan Ensaïmada is on the point of closure because of lack of funding from the regional government.
Last Monday, the Board's President Francesc Gari handed in his notice after a meeting with Agriculture director Margaret Mercadal. Miquel Pujol from the sa Pelleteria bakery has become acting President until internal elections are held in November.
A delicate situation
The financial position of the Majorcan Ensaïmada Board is a very delicate one.
The Balearic government owes it 65'000 euros and the Council of Majorca another 12'000 euros. According to Pujol, Margaret Mercadal told the Board members that there is no money to pay pending subsidies. Pujol says that this may mean that the Ensaïmada Regulatory Board will disappear altogether.
He explained that the Board had hitherto made sure that the manufacture and production of the Majorcan ensaïmada was patented so that it could not be exactly reproduced anywhere else and termed Majorcan.
But if the Board has to be disbanded, it means that bakers anywhere else in the world - be it in Galicia, Madrid, China or Latin America - can now make an ensaïmada and call it Majorcan. The pastry, Pujol said, is a star product of the island. Mercadal claimed that the Balearic government doesn't want to see the Board disappear and is taking up the issue with Central Government.
No comments
To be able to write a comment, you have to be registered and logged in
Currently there are no comments.