Daniela Plotegher: “Logistics problems are killing local businesses”

The president of the Puerto del Rosario Business Association, Daniela Plotegher, has voiced her dissatisfaction and criticised what she says was a lack of transparency in the renewal of the Fuerteventura Chamber of Commerce’s governing bodies. She says she learned of the new line-up on 3 July, “when it was shared on social media”.

In an interview with La Voz de Fuerteventura, she stressed that she had received “no communication about a change, new elections, new slate presentations or whatever”, she said.

According to Plotegher, the Business Association then requested an explanation in writing, in a document drawn up by its lawyer, but received no reply.

“We didn’t get any response. Nobody answered us, nothing,” she said. They later submitted a second request, which also went unanswered.

Plotegher said she decided to make the situation public because business owners who had backed her candidacy supported her presence on the Chamber. “Behind my application to be a member of the Chamber are 10 people who endorsed my position to be there. So I have to be transparent with those 10 people, and with the whole group, and explain what happened,” she said.

No vote in Fuerteventura

The process to renew the Chambers of Commerce is launched at state level and then carried out by the autonomous communities.

In the Canary Islands, the Department of Economy, Industry, Trade and Self-Employment, as the supervisory body for these public-law corporations, issued an order on 13 May 2026 calling elections to renew the plenary bodies of the Chambers of Gran Canaria, Fuerteventura, Lanzarote and La Graciosa, and Santa Cruz de Tenerife.

The call was published in the Official Gazette of the Canary Islands on 20 May. In Fuerteventura, the order initially set 10 July 2026 as the voting date.

In the case of the Chamber in Fuerteventura, however, a vote was ultimately not needed. Two candidates had been put forward during the process: one led by the institution’s president and another alternative slate. They eventually came together, leaving a single slate headed by Juan Jesús Rodríguez Marichal, who became president again for the next four years.

Plotegher’s criticism centres on the fact that, despite the official call, she says she received no direct communication from the institution about the start of the process. She says her concern is not so much that she was not part of the new line-up, but that she was not informed while she still held responsibilities within the Chamber.

Difficulties advancing work in the Commission for Domestic Trade

Plotegher also questioned how much room she had to act while chairing the Commission for Domestic Trade and advance some of the main demands raised by business owners and industry associations, particularly on logistics.

The commission, which included representatives of various associations and business owners in Fuerteventura, began a series of meetings with the town councils in an effort to establish a common position.

“We were managing to put together a joint statement from all the town councils and the Chamber of Commerce, to take the issue of transport logistics to the Canary Islands Government,” she explained.

The aim was to highlight a problem that directly affects the competitiveness of local businesses, including high transport costs, customs procedures and delays in the arrival of goods. These issues do not affect online retail, their main competitor.

Despite its importance, the initiative did not get off the ground.

“At a meeting with the Presidency, we were told that this was an issue dealt with in another way, through the Presidency or another Commission,” while the group was urged to organise trade events. Business owners considered that proposal a secondary priority in the current circumstances, and it depended on funding from the town councils—which never came.

“We understood that holding an event would have been important, but at that point logistics was what mattered,” she said.

Plotegher said situations like this ultimately frustrated commission members, who felt that progress on the work they had proposed was being constrained. She also said that “perhaps we didn’t fit that way of working, because we are very demanding and work decisively to achieve results”.

“This is killing local businesses”

Outside the Fuerteventura Chamber of Commerce, the Puerto del Rosario Business Association says it will continue to put these demands directly to the authorities.

Plotegher said they had already raised their concerns with the Canary Islands Government and had also recently met with the president of the Fuerteventura Island Council.

Logistics is the main issue. She said some businesses place orders in June or July for the Christmas shopping season but receive the goods only after the festivities are over. She also pointed to high customs costs, which have a direct impact. All of this, she warned, “is killing local businesses, and I think we need to stop and find a way to protect them. In the end, it is our island’s economy”.

Staff shortages are another challenge on top of the logistics problems.

Plotegher said it was difficult to find workers in the sector and revealed that some businesses were reducing their opening hours or even closing down. “People are closing up; they can’t take any more,” she said.

The business association president believes this situation should be a political priority because it is affecting trade as well as other economic activities.

Campaigns continue to boost local spending

As it continues to press these demands, the Business Association is also running initiatives to stimulate activity. Plotegher highlighted the results of Mójate, which, she said, generated more than €400,000 in just 20 days.

The next campaign, Busca la Suerte en el Corazón, will begin on 8 October and run until the 28th.

The head of the business organisation said initiatives of this kind reach across the municipality and bring different shopping areas together. She said this would be a clear focus of her work over the next 8 years as head of an organisation that has recently renewed its leadership and will also be represented on the board of COCAHI, the National Confederation of Traders’ Associations in Historic City Centres of Spain, for the next four years.