Spanish farmers protesting

The protests are mainly organised in the Extremadura region near the Portuguese border. Trade unions demand political action to guarantee retail prices for fruit and vegetables that farmers can make a living from.

These protests have been happening for at least a week in this region and elsewhere in Spain.

Farmers are angry at the combination of high agricultural production costs and the low prices they receive for their produce.

EU policy requirement creates an 'unfair' market - claim

The price of production for a kilo of oranges is around €0,20 to €0,22, the general secretary of the Agricultural Association of Young Farmers in Valencia (AVA ASAJA) Juan Salvador Torres, told Euronews.

Yet the same kilo of oranges only earns the farmer around €0,18 to €0,20 -- which means they're losing money.

"We depend on the market," Torres says. "It forces us to compete at a disadvantage with third countries that do not meet our production requirements. There can be no same market in which you demand a lot more from your farmers and much less from those outside it. That is not fair, that is not reciprocity, these are not equal conditions for the same market."

As the EU is currently discussing cutting agricultural subsidies, the bloc is blamed for setting requirements that mean farmers can't compete with cheaper produce from outside the EU.

The movement comes as a test for Spain's Socialist-led coalition government, which will have to face the EU on its plans for the future of the Common Agricultural Policy

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Source: Euro News

Source: Euro News