They rally around their colleagues from neighboring countries.
The three main Spanish agricultural unions announced on Tuesday that they were joining the angry movement of European farmers, with a series of “mobilizations” across the country over the “coming weeks”.
“The agricultural sector in Europe and Spain is facing growing frustration and unease”, due in particular to “the stifling bureaucracy generated by European regulations”, explained in a joint press release the Asaja, the UPA and the Coag.
These three organizations, which do not specify at this stage the exact dates of the demonstrations, say they want a "relaxation" and a "simplification" of the common agricultural policy, as well as an "ambitious action plan" at the "level". 'EU, Spain' and Spanish 'regions'.
European farmers "are fighting against a deregulated market which imports agricultural products from third countries at low prices, which are driving down" the prices of foodstuffs produced "in the EU" and "in Spain", underline the three organizations, the majority among Spanish farmers.
“These extra-community products do not respect European rules” in terms of respect for the environment and are at the origin of “unfair competition”, which “threatens the viability of thousands of agricultural operations in Spain and in Europe” , adds the press release.
Use of phytosanitary products
Agricultural demonstrations have been increasing for several days in the European Union, and mainly in France, where farmers have been blocking eight highways around the capital since Monday, under the surveillance of police forces mobilized en masse.
Faced with this mobilization, the Asaja union assured Monday that it wanted to join the movement.
“Spanish farmers have the same problems as French farmers,” its president Pedro Barato then underlined, assuring that “the Spanish countryside” was “fed up with being ignored.”
The movement of French farmers, marked by truck blockages at the Franco-Spanish border and by criticism, in France, of Spanish agriculture, accused of using a large quantity of phytosanitary products, has however aroused criticism among unions.
These accusations are “false and unworthy”, denounced Coag, which demanded in a press release the free movement of trucks carrying Spanish goods in France.
“Production and marketing standards are the same in all Member States,” stressed the Spanish Minister of Agriculture, Luis Planas.
Spanish products are therefore exported because of their “quality and competitiveness”, and not for “any other reason”, he insisted.
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Europe's leading exporter of fruit and vegetables and the world's leading producer of olives, Spain is, along with France, Italy, Germany and Poland, one of the main agricultural powers in the EU.
However, the country has been facing a historic drought for three years, which has caused harvests to fall, particularly cereals, and weakened a large number of agricultural operations.