Dozens of French growers dumped several tonnes of fruit in front of the Spanish consulate in Perpignan (south) as part of the protests they have carried out in recent weeks against the competition coming from Spain, which they accuse of causing prices to sink.
The protest started at around 7:00 local time (5:00 GMT) with the arrival of a trailer with peaches, which unloaded its contents in front of the consulate door, as reported by the newspaper L'Indépendant on its website, which illustrated this information with several photographs.
On top of the pile of peaches, the growers (mostly producers of stone fruit, but also of grapes) symbolically placed a French flag.
Yves Aris, president of the French National Federation of Farmers' Unions (Fnsea) in the department, said that with this protest they want to "denounce the unfair competition of the fruit coming from Spain," as quoted by the newspaper.
Aris complained that the same fruit in Spain is sold at "a reasonable price," but the ones sent to France are marketed at a price that causes prices to plunge and "we cannot accept that."
In the same vein, he complained that the French market serves as an outlet for Spanish surpluses. That's why he called for "state-to-state discussions to save our businesses. It's what we've come to say, calmly but firmly."
This is the fourth such action since the beginning of summer in the department of the Pyrenees Orientales. In recent weeks, there have been similar ones in front of supermarkets and the headquarters of L'Indépendant in Perpignan. The most important incident took place a few days ago, when young producers in the French region of Vaucluse intercepted a fruit truck containing peaches, apricots and carrots from Spain and Italy on the road between Orange and Piolenc and proceeded to dump their cargo.
