The Balearic government admitted this Thursday that it is unable to process environmental permits for the so-called “Macro Farm of Horror” in Llucmayor (Mallorca). The farm was in the news after elDiario.es exposed unsanitary conditions, extreme dirt and suspected animal abuse inside the facility. Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Natural Environment Joan Simonet acknowledged that current legislation does not allow this step to be carried out in the current state of the farm.
This was said after being questioned by Deputy Minister Ferran Rosa of the environmental sovereignty group Mes per Mallorca, who attended parliament and offered to report on the current situation of poultry farming. It is worth remembering that the farm attracted media attention on May 26th when this newspaper published previously unpublished images of the inside of the farm recorded by environmental and animal protection association ARDE and Satya Animal between April 21st and 29th. In its first report, the media said that the owner of an egg-laying chicken farm had received a fine of 150,000 euros from the regional administration for not having an integrated environmental license.
The compulsory nature of this authorization is contained in Royal Decree 1/2016, which defines the requirements to be taken into account to control pollution from this type of development. Further this year, Decree Law 1/2025 came into force on January 17th, tightening the requirements for intensive poultry farms in the Balearic Islands. The fourth additional clause of the article provides that new poultry farms and expansion of existing poultry farms are only allowed if they respect the minimum distance from residential areas determined according to the livestock production capacity. Specifically, farms that raise more than 80,000 chickens must be located at least 6 kilometers from populated areas.
In the case of Lucmayor farm, it is located approximately 1 km from the city centers of Trellik and Badia Gran. According to the new regulations, if a farm has more than 80,000 laying hens, it must maintain a distance “at least 6,000 meters in a straight line from the nearest urban residential area.” Therefore, if the new authorization were to be processed, it would have to comply with the requirements of the new Decree Law, requirements that exploitation does not currently meet, as this newspaper reported at the time.
Opposition parties question the government
Environmental sovereignty activist Ferran Rosa recalled in his speech that the Directorate General for Urban Harmony and Environmental Assessment, which is dependent on the Ministry of Housing, Territory and Mobility, rejected the application for an environmental permit incorporated into the Luc Mayor development by a resolution signed on September 25, which, in his opinion, highlights the contradictions of the Ministry of Agriculture, which did not submit the file in advance.
In the same resolution, General Director Paz Andrade pointed out that in order to authorize environmental treatment, it is necessary to take into account the entry into force of the law of February 2025, derived from the Decree Law of January 2025, and mainly in relation to the maximum number of layer hens (as was the case at Lucmayor farm at that time) and the distance from the urban center, conditions that the project does not meet. “Installation is not permitted,” Andrade concludes.
Not for nothing: the project description included in the resolution shows that Lucmayor Farm operated in six buildings that could house up to 135,696 birds, despite being allowed up to 40,000 layer hens. However, the request to legalize the facility was rejected. The Directorate General’s resolution therefore confirms that this farm has been operating illegally for several years.
In addition to applying for environmental permits, the document calls on the promoter (Avicola Son Perrault SA, the company behind the Avicola Ballester brand) to reduce the farm’s egg-laying capacity to a maximum of 40,000 hens. It also requires the company to present a verifiable plan to comply with these targets by December 31, 2025, which the company must submit to the Directorate General of Agriculture, Livestock and Rural Development. Written by Fernando Fernández (PP).
It will also need to take care of “corresponding required permits that we do not currently have” related to both the maximum capacity of the development and the Sa La Passa landfill. We have an APCA license (activities with the potential for air pollution) and comply with Law 3/2019 of January 31st on agricultural activities and Royal Decree 637/2024 of July 27th laying down the basic rules for the management of poultry farms.
Ferran Rosa (Mes per Mallorca): “They are deceiving us”
In his speech, Mr. Rosa expressed surprise at Mr. Simonet’s appearance on November 13, on May 26, when the “scandal” became public, claiming that it “not only affected the residents of Llucmayor, but also scandalized a significant part of the population of the Balearic Islands.” The environmentalist MP began his speech by making precise reference to the resolution rejecting the integrated environmental license, which was signed on September 25th and published in the Balearic Islands Official Bulletin (BOIB) on October 9th.
“The proposal for dismissal was made on July 23,” he said. Given that no complaints had been filed as of August 11, the process may have already been completed, environmental sovereignty advocates stressed, going further: “The strange thing is that throughout this period of development of the integrated environmental assessment procedure, they were not informed from the beginning that the Agricultural Land Act had changed, so it was legally impossible for them to grant that permission.”
At this point, Rosa began listing all the regulatory changes that have taken place since January 2025, and blamed the government for delaying the filing, which “could have been closed in January” as soon as the new law took effect, rather than in October, when it finally happened. He further argued that it is clear from the resolution of the Director of Urban Harmony that the report sent through the Ministry of Agriculture, particularly the Livestock Production Department, was not “negative” but “conditional”. “As you said today (this Thursday), they were not negative reports, but rather conditional reports,” he charged.
Based on these arguments, Rosa argues that the ministry’s engineers should have sent a report to the Directorate General ex officio “explaining that they strongly urge the substantive agency to archive this file because it is not legally actionable according to current regulations.”
Environmental Sovereignty advocates recalled that these conditional reports from the Livestock Department were published on April 15 and May 27, respectively, and highlighted the fact that this second report was published the day after this newspaper first revealed the internal situation of the farm, and that it established the conditions under which the farm could process this integrated environmental license, which is mandatory for its operations.
Such a condition is not possible, given that the minimum distance between the poultry farm and the surrounding urban center is not met. One of the options available to a farm to allow it to continue operating legally is to change its location and process a new permit. Another option ultimately chosen is to reduce the maximum capacity of facilities that can legally operate to 40,000 birds. “Minister, I feel bad, but I think they are making fun of us,” Rosa said. “They didn’t do anything at the time the law was approved, and they didn’t do anything until it was published in the newspapers,” he lamented.
Mr. Simonet (PP): “Our report is unfavorable.”
Mr. Simonet, who limited his initial intervention to reading files related to exploitation investigated for illegality and defending his department’s management, responded to Mr. Rosa: “I believe that the Directorate General for Harmonization (Urban Planning and Environmental Assessment) knows perfectly well what laws have been approved,” the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Natural Environment said. “In any case, when asked for a report (…) it is all unfavorable.”
“It’s not conditional and it’s disadvantageous,” Simonet argued. In the environmental impact assessment report, the councilor argued, “If this is the case, we are asking you to say what conditions should be in place to overcome it.” This is Mr. Simone’s way of justifying his actions, adding that José Luis Mateo, Minister of Housing, Territories and Migration (PP), had previously claimed that the procedure was carried out this way due to issues of “double legal security”.
Meanwhile, Balearic Parliament PSIB-PSOE Deputy Spokesperson Mark Pons regretted the opinion that there were “obvious gaps” regarding the procedures carried out by the Ministry of Agriculture, which would be reflected in the file. The Socialist Party MP explained the process initiated by the Ministry through various reports and files related to poultry farming. As reported by elDiario.es, the report and sanctions file related to the management of manure and its management plan (signed on December 12, 2023 and September 26, 2024, respectively), according to which three major and two minor violations may have been committed.
However, Mr. Pons recalled that the Directorate General of Agriculture, Livestock and Rural Development had suspended the sanctions procedure and related preventive measures initiated against Avicola Son Perrault SA on November 5, 2024. All this despite serious flaws being detected by Balearic Executive’s own technicians. “The person who signed the suspension of this measure is Fernando Fernández, Director of the Department of Agriculture, Livestock and Rural Affairs,” the Socialists elaborated, adding that he did so even though the suspension was not accompanied by “any technical report supporting the suspension of the sanctions procedure.” Similarly, it is questionable whether there was a crime of prior administrative infringement.
“It’s not a prejudgement by any means,” Simonet concluded. The branch minister insisted that the head of the ministry’s legal department drafts resolutions when public proceedings are held in both the public prosecutor’s office and the court. “This was not written by the Director General,” he clarified, adding that it was prepared based on the current administrative procedure regulations and the Agricultural Land Law. He said: “We are completely calm on this issue. The sanctions procedure will be suspended and then resumed again.”
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