‘handcrafted food product’ means a food product which is produced in a company listed in national registers, under national commercial law, as a craft enterprise, and which is produced directly for consumers;

‘handcrafted food product’ means a food product which is produced in a company listed in national registers, under national commercial law, as a craft enterprise, and which is produced directly for consumers;

− (PT) We believe that amendments have been made that improve the initial proposal of the European Commission, namely: the need to favour production and local products and small-scale farmers in particular, to the detriment of production for export; the necessary involvement of producers’ organisations in defining programmes and for these to give priority to small-scale agricultural holdings; that aid not be granted to the production of raw materials for luxury goods or biofuels (we regret that on this point genetically modified organisms (GMO) were not excluded).

Tobacco is currently cultivated on only a small area on the island of La Palma, for the small-scale manufacture of cigars.

(14) Tobacco growing is of historical importance on the islands. Economically speaking, tobacco preparation continues to be one of the chief industrial activities in the region. In social terms, tobacco cultivation is very labour intensive and carried out by small farms. Since the crop is not sufficiently profitable it is in danger of dying out. Tobacco is currently cultivated only on a small area on the island of La Palma, where it is used for the artisanal manufacture of cigars. Spain should therefore be authorised to continue to grant aid in addition to the Community aid so that this traditional crop can be maintained with a view to s ...[+++]upporting the artisanal activity associated with it. In addition, to maintain the manufacture of tobacco products, imports into the Canary Islands of raw and semi-manufactured tobacco should continue to be exempt from customs duty, up to an annual limit of 20000 tonnes of stripped raw tobacco equivalent.

The similarity of many types of agricultural and artisanal production with activities in neighbouring countries may pose certain problems of competition for these regions, as a result of differences in wage levels, although the same situation may also provide scope for cooperation in the search for outlets.