Farmers announce another large-scale tractor rally and protest in Malaga next week

Another huge tractor rally protest will take place in Malaga on 21 February as disgruntled farmers continue their demonstrations against strict agricultural EU policies.

It comes as organisations calling for the protests - Asaja, Coag, UPA and Cooperativas Agro-Alimentarias - faced the media for the first time on Monday 12 February since demonstrations began last week.

The protest on 21 February is expected to be a large-scale event, while more demonstrations are planned tomorrow (14 February) which will see successive roadblocks on different main roads in Malaga province starting at 10am. The affected routes will be: A-45 Km 86 at San Benito, A-92 Km 149 at El Faro, A-92M Km 7 at Paneque and A-384 at the Almargen junction.

Cooperativas Agro-Alimentarias manager Carlos Cinta said the protests are aiming to do "as little damage as possible" to the public. "The situation in the countryside is very bad. We have more and more bureaucracy. We are forced to be a manager, a tax officer and an accountant," he said.

Secretary general of Coag, Antonio Rodríguez, appealed to politicians and the general public. "This is not just a problem for farmers, it is a problem for the whole population. Who eats if we don't produce food?" he warned. The example of the lemon growers in the Guadalhorce Valley was referenced. "What sense does it make that we are eating lemons that come from South Africa and the ones from here are rotting on the ground," Rodríguez added.

Asaja president Baldomero Bellido pointed out that agricultural policies designed in Brussels have become "a big obstacle". He said they are "a danger to our way of living and producing food in the villages" and that they could not be further removed from the real needs of the rural world.

Transport protests

The so-called Plafatorma6F, a group which wants to take the lead in the protests in the countryside, now also wants to include the transport sector in the protests. This Saturday, in Madrid, a strike by the transport sector workers was approved. It comes as disgruntled hauliers staged their own protest on the outskirts of Malaga city on Sunday night (11 February) lighting a bonfire barricade outside Mercamálaga, a huge wholesale market, one of the largest in Andalucía.

However, the Malaga agricultural associations wanted to distance themselves from this attempt to combine both causes. Antonio Rodríguez from COAG was clear about this: "I respect any problems that the transport sector may have. But I think that we farmers have enough problems and our need to be treated separately. By putting everything in the same bag we run the risk of our demands being diluted in any possible negotiations."