Please enable JS and disable any ad blocker Guifré Jordan | Guissona and suddenly landing over 3,000 kilometers west where the chirping of birds is the loudest noise you can hear This is the situation around 200 refugees from the Eastern European nation are experiencing these days upon their arrival in Guissona. Its enormous meat manufacturing company BonÀrea has shaped this little western Catalan town for decades with thousands of migrants living there due to the work on offer. In the 90s and 30 years later it has more than doubled to 7,500 Around 1,000 people living there are Ukrainians It has the second-highest Ukrainian population of all towns in Catalonia with 5,000 out of 1.6 million inhabitants overall. Those who have been living in the little town are now accommodating family and friends escaping bombs but they are not the only ones helping newcomers. Associations collect food and clothes and others raise funds for refugees and the local council has eased paperwork and is preparing social activities to help the new arrivals adapt These are just some of the solidarity efforts organized in the past weeks Ignasi Ribera is a volunteer focused on housing He told Catalan News that the refugees "are in total shock upon arrival." Refugees have been arriving at Guissona by road, train and plane thanks to a flight charted by entities and businesses. because children play with volunteers after two days," and the mothers "end up waving at you in the street and smiling they will have to start thinking about work in order to have their own home Romaniya Dzhus is a Ukrainian who’s been living in Guissona for 16 years and is volunteering as an interpreter. They help refugees communicate with the locals who are accommodating them and also explain to them how to deal with the everyday issues in the town such as queuing at the doctor’s and doing the shopping. These volunteers are especially key because they are the first ones to break a layer of initial mistrust some have with local authorities and entities. "The other day a woman with four kids wanted to go to the toilet we told her to leave them with us in the meantime but I realized she was afraid of doing so," Dzhus said has also experienced that initial mistrust they were telling us through interpreters: 'Does this document mean I have to stay here before signing it I have to know'," he explained to this media outlet. Ribera also emphasizes how key it is to have volunteers able to speak Ukrainian or Russian: "They open up through the language volunteer little by little." Besides housing and providing the basics in terms of food and hygiene one of the most urgent steps in Guissona is providing them with the town hall registration the stepping stone of their new life in Catalonia Public healthcare and education will be much easier to obtain with this basic paperwork, given that both Catalan and Spanish authorities are easing procedures for them. Catalonia already allows them to register in the jobseekers' office but the mayor raises some doubts on whether granting them work is the best option at this stage. the Ukrainian community representatives attending a recent local meeting evaluating this humanitarian crisis urged caution because "We may have to ensure employment for those permanently living here and who are accommodating refugees," said the mayor. Guissona has already schooled 19 refugees in their schools and they are going straight into a welcoming classroom which fits up to 20 we held a big event in the playground with speeches and the school was decorated with Ukrainian flags." The school is used to accepting students new in the country at all times given the ongoing job opportunities at BonÀrea all year round teachers may have to deal with emotionally complex situations for children and one of the techniques they will use is laughter therapy "Imagine a student in your classroom and their father dies at war How should a death in these circumstances be handled?" he wondered Mayor Jaume Ars also explained that some children are reluctant to go or spend much time at school right after their arrival and therefore they are offering them alternative social activities Catalan and Ukrainian lessons and sports. the local councillor admits there is a poor attendance so far and fears for their family remaining in Ukraine converge into an experience that children are going through that most residents in Catalonia will not witness in their entire lives Get the day's biggest stories right to your phone The company experienced sales cuts of 2.6% Click her e to read the Spanish version. The agri-food corporation chaired by Jaume Alsina Calvet closed last year with a slight decline in its annual turnover. However, it recorded an increase in profits, specifically by 17%. After experiencing sales cuts of 2.6% in 2023, the Lleida-based company was unable to reach its target of 3,000 million in revenue. A fall justified by the former Guissona group by the drop in petrol prices and the marketing of litre volumes, as well as lower feed production. All these factors had a negative impact on turnover, affecting the engineering and services sector, animal feed and health, and agricultural and livestock services. Despite the reduction in sales, the human food division, which represents 53% of the business, increased its turnover by 9.8% to 1,447 million euros. The bulk of this figure corresponds to the sales of the bonÀrea chain, which amounted to 1,182 million and rose by 11%. According to the corporation, this positive evolution of the human food business is what improved net profit, which reached 81.30 million euros. As for the future forecasts of bonÀrea, which has 574 establishments spread over eight autonomous communities and Andorra, the group plans to invest in 23 openings over the course of 2024, which will bring it closer to its objective of opening 600 shops in the near future. © 2025 Tapas. Todos los derechos reservados. - Around 21,500 Ukrainian refugees are still in Catalonia exactly one year after the war began according to recent Catalan government estimations. Overall around 36,000 people from the eastern European country have been in exile in the country at some point over the past 12 months and only around 15% of them have been included in Spain's programme for refugees "We warned from the beginning that Spain's refugee aid program would not work as it is already overwhelmed and a high amount of applications are rejected," Tània Verge Almost 5,000 of those fleeing from the conflict and seeking shelter in Catalonia are children that have enrolled in local schools Most of them are in primary school (2,240) A significant number of minors have enrolled in schools in the Girona area (1,068), and that is because the counties surrounding Girona and the Costa Brava have been popular destinations for refugees has registered 1,532 Ukrainian nationals escaping from war – 686 of them are children it was very rough because we were forced to leave our country The western Lleida region has also become home to some of the 21,500 newcomers, especially the village of Guissona and its surroundings. all year round have drawn the attention of many foreigners looking for work for years relatives and friends of Guissona residents living in the eastern European country moved to the village According to local council data, 175 refugees are still living in the municipality which has hosted up to 350 people escaping from the conflict Overall over 1,000 Ukrainians live in Guissona accounting for around 15% of the total population the Catalan government said that €1.7 million have been allocated in aid due to the war – a further €11.7 million coming from EU funds are being granted to those displaced and €1.9 million to local councils that first dealt with the humanitarian emergency Over 26,000 health cards have been issued to make sure they have access to the public health system and 2,341 people received assistance from the Catalan jobseekers' office Thousands of people seeking shelter have also got help at the Barcelona exhibition center Fira welcome hub at local councils or through the 900 500 912 hotline and NGOs have also helped with humanitarian aid both on the ground in Ukraine and by welcoming those arriving in Catalonia fleeing the war The Red Cross said this week that they have provided assistance to 46,566 refugees in Catalonia ensured accommodation for 20,791 of them in 41 municipalities and some 2,000 are still using their first reception services Also, the Catalan Cooperation Fund has sent €741,000 to humanitarian projects during the first year of the Ukraine war v1.1.0. Copyright © 2025. Powered by EBANTIC. All rights reserved. the Iberavi hatchery expanded its operations with Avida A18 and A12 setters along with a modern heat recovery and energy management system The Cooperativa of Guissona in Catalunia is also expanding using single stage technology of Avida setters Granja Pages uses the Chick Master Smith 150-egg tray in its growing single stage facility major facilities were completed recently. Hatcheries in Italy and South Korea have selected the 82-egg tray for their new operations. The 82-egg tray is designed for improved egg transport and use with automation systems Avida single stage setters have been designed to easily adjust to variable conditions of flock age and other factors whereas Zephyr hatchers are used to get strong and healthy chicks that grow faster on the farm. The Climate Control System (CC3) is designed to ventilate and efficiently control the hatchery environment the CC3 is a more environmentally friendly way to maintain the proper room conditions in a hatchery The CC3 ventilation system offers the user a simple package that only has to be connected to the hatchery upon arrival. The CC3 has two versions; the GL (ground level) and RT (rooftop). Either system can be built to include: ventilation heat recovery for greater energy efficiency and Indonesia have already recognized what the CC3 has to offer in savings and performance Related websites: www.chickmaster.com www.cag.es