FARMERS from across Cordoba have announced they will protest US President Donald Trump’s trade tariffs.

Agricultural workers will hold a blockade in Lucena next month to express their anger at the floundering olive and farming market. 

The action is planned for a busy stretch of the A-45 towards Lucena, where dozens of tractors will block the road to make their voices heard on Valentines Day, February 14th.

Representatives of the main farmers’ organisations, the UPA, COAG and the Asaja are protesting the increasingly difficult working conditions that mean that olive and livestock production is at a critical level and in danger of dying out.

According to UPA secretary general, Miguel Cobos, the agricultural sector is fighting against ever increasing costs for the farmland imposed by the regional governments, costs that outweigh the costs of agricultural production. 

Spanish agriculture is also suffering a crisis due to Trump’s tariff on table olives, as well as agreements with other countries on the import of agricultural products and the increasing costs of the production and export of goods.

TOUGH ON TRADE: US President Trump has also imposed tariffs on other Spanish products, including olive oil, wine and cheese

During 2019, Spain’s olive export rate to America was slashed by almost 15,000 tonnes after the US imposed a 25% levy on the product.

This, accompanied by the government’s failure to manage proper storage issues and the lowering of prices, has put one of the agricultural industry’s best exports in critical danger. 

Cobos has also criticized the government for not putting the industry at the forefront of its priorities. 

“You have to put agriculture on the table and declare it as a strategic sector for Spain, Andalucia and Cordoba,” he said.

“It is necessary that governments take it seriously.”

The farming industry took a large hit back at the Climate Summit in Madrid in December when speakers named the profession the ‘third most polluting activity in the world.’

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1 COMMENT

  1. For the farmers to be “heard” by Trump, it would make more sense to blockade his favourite comedor – McDonalds – than to pointlessly block their own roads. There are many more manifestations of American “culture” in Spain to prod, so be creative, beard the lion in his den. He’s only a big fat bully.

    Location : malaga

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