Girona farmers have once again protested against the distribution companies, after they have once again lowered the price they pay per liter of milk.
Specifically, according to the producers, it has gone from 50 cents to 47, a figure that is “below the production price” and that, they claim, leads them “to ruin,” according to the producers.
The demonstration was scheduled to take place at eleven in the morning in front of the Subdelegation of the Spanish government in Girona, but it was initially moved to Avenida Ramon Folch.
The reason was that the Municipal Police intercepted one of the three trailers in which they had loaded shopping carts from the Mercadona supermarket with which they wanted to carry out the protest.
After some tension with the agents and some identification, they finished the concentration at the Subdelegation.
“People are desperate.” This is how clearly the head of the dairy sector at Unió de Pagesos, Marc Xifra, has shown himself, after Mercadona has decided to lower the price it pays per liter of milk to Catalan farmers and, in turn, has made the rest of the large distributors – especially Bonpreu and Lidl – have also made the same decision. A reduction that the union denounces as violating the food chain law, which does not allow a lower price to be paid than what it costs to make a product. In this sense, Xifra points out that the 47 cents offered by large retailers does not cover the cost of producing a liter of milk.
The head of the dairy sector emphasizes that, to all this, it is added that there is no generational change because young people “see that they cannot earn a living.” The price reduction, Xifra assures, leads them “to ruin” and asks the Spanish government to “act” against large distribution so that the law is complied with.
Cifra denounces that milk is being sold as a “demanding product” in supermarkets and that this means that “there is less and less supply.” Furthermore, Unió de Pagesos ensures that the price paid by the final consumer is “below what it costs the establishment.” “If they lose money, imagine us,” she denounced.
The farmers have taken the protest to the Subdelegation of the Spanish government on Avenida Jaume I, where they have dumped several bags of straw, along with around twenty Mercadona shopping carts. And the group holds Juan Roig’s brand responsible for lowering the price of milk and making the rest of the large distributors do the same.
