Extremaduran rural areas will take to the streets again

Rural areas in France are burning with protests and farming organizations are coming together again, after two years, to restart their mobilization calendar. For now, the first protests will take place at the regional level.

Although dates have not yet been decided, La Union has already called for a tractor rally in Madrid on 21 February. According to its regional leader Luis Cortés, the protest will include 500 tractors and 5,000 demonstrators.

At the national level, the majority of farm organizations have agreed to resume mobilization across the country to request a shock plan for rural areas, although without any specific date. Juan Moreno of COAG said this afternoon, “The demands are numerous and important. We have a PAC that is completely unenforceable, unacceptable, farmers and ranchers have tremendous cuts and environmental demands that are difficult to meet.”

From the platform in defense of agriculture, Lola Guzmán says that “the Spanish primary sector has already woken up and has not come forward before to perform like its EU colleagues because here we have the yoke of the government and agricultural associations on our necks”. .

Farmers are demanding a shocking plan from the government in view of the changes in the policies of the European Union and the crisis facing the sector. They also demand fair prices, less bureaucracy, and similar health and “green” requirements for imports from competing countries.

For his part, the government representative in Extremadura, José Luis Quintana, said that “On the one hand I respect the demonstrations. And on the other hand, the Ministry of Agriculture is working with farmers and is with them on all issues. Has subsidies which other EU countries do not have.

This Wednesday, protests in the rice fields

Some mobilization will begin in the rice sector, concentrated in Don Benito this Wednesday. According to reports from the Extremino Rice Sector Platform, the situation they are going through is complex. The production costs do not stop increasing and the price they get later is inadequate.

Rice growers estimate production costs to be between 82 and 85 cents per kilo of long and round rice, respectively, and the prices they are offering them this year are between 43 and 50 cents per kilo, much lower than last year. Is.

For this reason, they deplore that the food chain is not complete and want to demand fair prices. Also, the sale of this rice will be treated as a priority in the EU or at least require the same traceability as for rice from non-EU countries.