Various associations and organizations of the Spanish agricultural sector condemned the attacks that French farmers carried out this weekend against trucks carrying Spanish stonefruit, such as nectarines, Chinese flat peaches and peaches, passing through Perpignan.
The attack took place last Saturday in front of a supermarket located at the southern exit of the A9 motorway in Perpignan. The French producers raided three Spanish trucks and dumped thousands of kilos of stonefruit on the ground and then set them on fire.
As a result of this attack, FEPEX demanded the EU ensured the Community right to free movement and that they adopt market crisis measures. FEPEX also expressed their concern that the attacks against the Spanish fruit are designed to provoke a disguised restriction on trade between Member States, which would have very negative consequences for the Spanish stonefruit industry.
The high tension in France is due to this campaign's market crisis affecting the production of stonefruit and all of the producing countries: Spain, Italy, Greece and France.
The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Environment, plans to convene the Spanish-French-Italian peach and nectarine contact group, which includes representatives of the sectors of the three countries, as well as the administrations, on Thursday, July 10.
"As has been the case every summer, French farmers boycott Spanish exports to Europe. Spanish farmers are also being affected by the price crisis. They want to assign blame on the Spanish producers when the real culprits are the large retail chains, mostly French, that abuse their dominant position in the market to impose prices that ruin the fields," stressed David Borda, from COAG.
"It's imperative that the EU creates a new law to punish unfair commercial practices in the retail industry and that they put an end to the imbalances of the agri-food value chain. Furthermore, they have to strengthen the CAP's crisis management mechanisms, so that they can be implemented effectively when prices collapse," he added.
COAG said that France also exported agricultural products to Spain and that their shipments of potato, milk and apple had important and serious consequences for Spanish producers. Since imports of French apples in the first quarter of 2014 increased by 60%, the prices of Spanish apples fell sharply, affecting the profitability of the Spanish productions.
ASAJA Murcia also denounced the attacks. Its general secretary, Alfonso Gálvez Caravaca said that "these acts cause arbitrary discrimination and a disguised restriction on trade in the market of other Member States, something that we can't consent to or permit."
According to data from Eurostat, Spanish peach exports to France in 2013 amounted to 52,000 tons, and 10,206 tons in the month of July, a significant percentage of which are re-exported to other markets.