FARMERS will take to Valencia City’s streets on Monday in protest against the signing of the European Union’s agreement with Mercosur, the South American trade bloc.
The demonstration has been organised by the UNASPI union which represents independent farmers in Spain.
It says the accord is harmful to the country’s agricultural and livestock sector and promotes the interests of large multinationals and agribusiness, threatening the viability of family-run farms.
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The protest will start at 11pm at the Valencia Nord rail station, finishing at the Government Delegation building in the city.
UNASPI is hoping that over 100 tractors will be mobilised as well as thousands of farmers, ranchers, and citizens.
A series of speeches will be given outside the Government Delegation building and a manifesto against the EU-Mercosur agreement will be delivered.
The union wants the ratification of the agreement to be stopped due to irreversible consequences for the Spanish agricultural sector and for society as a whole.
They warn that the deal would allow a massive influx of food from third-party countries without the same health, labour, and environmental standards that are enforced within the EU.
Wage costs are far lower from those countries, meaning that cheap imports will create unfair competition within the Spanish market and the rest of the EU.
There have also been numerous protests in recent weeks across Spain as well as in other European countries, including France, Greece, and Germany.
The manifesto against the Mercosur deal says: “Official data confirms that between the last two agricultural censuses carried by the National Statistics Institute(2009–2020), Spain has lost 74,925 farms (-7.6%) and 73,054 livestock farms (-30.1%).”
“Every farm that closes is not just a business that disappears: it’s a family forced out of the countryside, a village that empties out, and a territory left abandoned, without management, without activity, and without protection against fires, desertification, and food dependency,” the manifesto continued.
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