Farmers in Catalonia blocked routes and accesses to protest the difficulties suffered by the sector. Hundreds of tractors gathered at one of the entrances to the port of Tarragona, located about 100 km south of Barcelona, AFP reported.
In another demonstration near the border with France, protesters blocked with tractors and barricades a section of the busy AP-7 highway near Pontós (Girona) and the same thing happened at the doors of the Mercabarna wholesale market.
The mobilizations are carried out protesting “unfair competition” of products from territories that “do not meet European standards”, according to a statement from the Catalan organization Unión de Pagesos.
Due to farmers’ protests, the European Union does not see conditions to advance the agreement with Mercosur
Besides, farmers also point to excessive bureaucracyas well as what they consider insufficient protection for a sector in difficulty, according to AFP.
Tractors in motion
The complaint of Spanish farmers joins that of their colleagues in the rest of their colleagues in the European Union about the bureaucracy and complexity of European regulations, as well as the low prices at which they sell their products and the competition, which they consider unfair, from foreign products.
Last week, a thousand tractors marched through Barcelona to take their demands to the regional government.
In the rest of the country, the most powerful call is expected to be this Wednesday and A demonstration is planned for February 21 before the Ministry of Agriculture in Madrid.
Spain, known as the “orchard of Europe”, is the leading European exporter of fruits and vegetables, but its agricultural sector is going through difficulties, mainly due to the drought that has devastated the country for three years.