A great shame

By Jason Moore THE announcement this week that the El Caserio cheese factory on Minorca is to close is a major blow to the Balearic economy and will hit the beautiful island of Minorca hard. 200 jobs will be lost but indirectly the toll will probably be much higher because much of Minorca´s milk output went to this factory. It is such a shame because El Caserio is a household name in Spain and now production is being switched to Belgium. In other-words Minorca won´t even be able to maintain the trademark. El Caserio is owned by Kraft which in turn is owned by the multi-national Phillip Morris. The decision to close the factory was probably not even taken in Europe. The upside of being owned by a multi-national is that there is always money for investment but when times are hard there is always room in other factories for more production. This is what has happened to El Caserio and unfortunately Minorca will have to pay the price. I am sure that Minorcan farmers and the employees who have lost their jobs will be able to weather the storm but they are going to need help from the Balearic government and the Council of Minorca. These are the times when our politicians must be up to their jobs, because when times are hard, action is needed.