The Valencian Farmers Association (AVA-ASAJA) has denounced the recent attacks from French growers on Spanish trucks transporting fruit and vegetables, considering them intolerable and unacceptable. So far, there has been confirmation of an attack to a vehicle from Lorca (Murcia), which was approached by a group of French growers in the vicinity of the town of Arles, in the French Riviera and carried 18 tonnes of citrus and vegetables, which were dumped to the ground and then burned.
Moreover, in recent days, French producers, who have been protesting against the collapse of prices at origin of their fruit and vegetables, have blocked some of the country's main highways, causing huge traffic jams in which hundreds of trucks are trapped and thereby preventing the normal transport of fruit and vegetable consignments from Spain, not only to France, but also to other European countries.
The president of AVA-ASAJA, Cristóbal Aguado, considered it "inconceivable and unacceptable that these atrocities continue to happen," accusing the French gendarmerie of passivity, "since we have no news of the detention of those responsible for these criminal actions."
The president of AVA-ASAJA has requested "the immediate intervention of the European Commission and the implementation of compensations to Spanish growers and carriers directly affected by these actions." Aguado asked the European Union "to strive to guarantee the free movement of goods and put an end to this cyclical problem once and for all."