French growers dumped tonnes of peaches, nectarines and apricots on Wednesday in front of a supermarket in the city of Perpignan to protest against the supply of Spanish products, which they blame for bringing prices down. According to the radio station France Bleu Rousillon, the action started around 5 am, when about 20 producers dumped the fruit in front of a Leader Price store located in the Saint Charles wholesale market, in the outskirts of the city.
One of the participants in the protest, quoted on the website of the newspaper L'Indépendant de Perpignan, denounced the arrival of produce from Spain without previously fixed prices. "The trucks," he explained, "leave the production place and the negotiation is carried out while they are on their way," which results in importers accumulating goods and "saturating the market." They offer very low prices, and that ends up convincing French distributors, who buy them, to the detriment of the local production.
Speaking to the newspaper, French trade unionists accused the distribution groups of claiming that they only sell domestic fruit, when in practice they are selling Spanish produce, especially in the stores located far from the cultivation areas, where they believe they won't undergo verification checks. They complained that "our national production remains on the trees or in cold chambers."
Source: elpais.com
