Madrid, Feb 13 (EFE).- Farmers in Spain were holding their eighth consecutive day of demonstrations and road blockades on Tuesday.
Similar protests have been held across Europe in recent weeks, with farmers angry at rising costs and cuts to European Union subsidies.
The Spanish government has called the main agricultural organizations to a new meeting on Thursday.
The Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Luis Planas, will meet with representatives of agricultural trade unions on Feb. 15 to find solutions to problems faced by the country’s farmers.
On Tuesday a group of tractors blocked the two main access roads to Mercabarna, a wholesale market in Barcelona, to denounce that products from third countries that do not comply with the regulations required of Spanish farmers are allowed to be marketed.
Farmers were also blockading roads in Tarragona, Cantabria, Castille and Leon, Zaragoza and in Andalusia in the south.
The agricultural mobilizations will be continue on Wednesday, with convoys of tractors and protests planned in Burgos, Cuenca, Guadalajara, Jaen, Malaga, Palencia, Santiago de Compostela, Seville, Toledo, Valladolid, the port of Motril (Granada) and Mercamadrid (Madrid).
In addition, self-employed truck drivers and SMEs with the National Platform for the Defense of Transport have called off the indefinite strike they had called for this weekend.
On Monday, the European Commission published the exceptions to the fallow obligations set by the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in response to agricultural protests in other European countries that have also spread to Spain.
The plan is to repeal a rule that compels farmers to keep part of their land uncultivated, so that they can plant crops such as lentils, peas and beans on 4% of their land. EFE
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