The wave of discontent sweeping through the European agricultural sector, with its epicenter in France, has also reached Spain. The main organizations in the sector, Asaja, COAG and UPA, as well as the Catalan Unió de Pagesos, have announced mobilizations in several autonomous communities to demand a shock plan from the Spanish Government, the autonomies and the EU in the face of the crisis that the countryside is experiencing. .
The first protests began this Tuesday, with a spontaneous tractor-trailer that toured the center of Zamora. The Union of Peasants of Castilla y León has called concentrations for February 6 and in Catalonia, Unió de Pagesos is preparing marches and highway cuts for February 13, in addition to actions in the port of Tarragona against imports of merchandise that, they consider , they make “unfair competition to Catalan products.” Other communities will also experience protests next month.
The Spanish primary sector already carried out intense mobilizations at the beginning of 2020, interrupted by the arrival of the pandemic and which were resumed in 2022. In the last two years they have also suffered a cost crisis and a drop in production due to the drought that has the price of food, such as olive oil, skyrocketed or generated conflicts such as the one experienced in the Doñana strawberry industry over water resources.
The pressure on prices exerted by imports from non-EU countries and the “excessive bureaucracy” of the EU is at the heart of the discomfort of the Spanish primary sector. “Farmers struggle in the face of a deregulated market that imports agricultural products from third countries at low prices that put downward pressure on those from the EU and those produced in Spain,” point out Asaja, COAG and UPA. They insist that these non-EU productions “do not comply with internal” European regulations and generate “unfair competition that jeopardizes the viability of thousands of farms in Spain and Europe.” Among their claims is the paralysis of negotiations for agreements such as Mercosur, the non-ratification of the trade agreement with New Zealand and the paralysis of negotiations with Chile, Kenya, Mexico, India and Australia.
In addition, they demand that the Spanish Government, with the supervision of the European Commission, increase controls on the border with Morocco to guarantee that imported agricultural products comply with internal European regulations and the tariff amounts established in the free trade agreement are respected. . “It is vital to recover community preference to recover and guarantee our food sovereignty,” maintain the three agricultural organizations. The agricultural and livestock representatives will also request the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Luis Planas, for “immediate solutions” to address other problems, such as those derived from the drought, the war in Ukraine, the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and labor issues. .
As for the CAP, whose 2024 campaign begins precisely on February 1, they demand that it be “made more flexible” and “simplified”, considering its bureaucracy and environmental costs “unaffordable”. At the national level, they demand the modification and expansion of the Agri-Food Chain Law to prohibit unfair practices, so that farmers’ prices cover production costs. Another demand includes a “reinforced budget for agricultural insurance, to adapt it to the structural situation caused by droughts” and adverse meteorological phenomena.
