Food industry move to non-urbanizable land gets approval

TARIFA (Agencies/Photo: illustration only) A unanimous decision by Tarifa Council has given the go-ahead to changes in the PGOU (Plan General de Ordenación Urbana) that will allow food producing industries to use non-urbanizable, rural or natural land. The move comes as a way to support local industries such as the canning facilities of Marina Real, La Tarifeña and Diego Piñero, grouped together years ago, and which had been demanding more space with which to expand and modernize, and thus compete in this highly competitive market. Aside from which, the plants have been progressively surrounded by housing, so a move to new facilities at the La Vega industrial estate is almost an inevitable one. It is also true that fish bones left over from the canning process are used to make flour; Harinas de Andalucía has a plant at La Vega, so the two go together and save transportation costs as well. All this, without mentioning the 'environmental impact' produced by these industries, which often produce extremely unpleasant smells in their neighbourhood, something that will be avoided in future.