• Live from the land. The mountain of cows named

Farmers and winners have started a mobilization campaign this week to protest the situation they are living. The main professional agricultural organizations have supported these manifestations: Asaja, Coag and Upa. Yesterday, the mobilizations in San Benito, Badajoz, resulted in several wounded. The rise in the minimum wage has been the drop that fills the glass, but it is not the only reason for his discomfort. These are some of the reasons why they protest.

What is your main claim? Farmers and ranchers protest mainly because, they say, they are not paid a fair price for the products they grow. They regret that, in many cases, it does not even give them to cover production costs. For example, when a farmer who grows tomatoes pays more to produce them than what he gets when he sells them. It is what is called sale at losses. They also say that these production costs have risen but that they do not have the capacity to transfer this increase to what they sell, which leads many professionals to have to close their farms or farms. Does this problem come from now? No. It is a claim that comes from a long time ago, but that this year has worsened for different reasons. The sector has always denounced that the agri-food chain is unfair , that the same is not paid to all those who compose it (farmers, intermediaries and distribution), and that supermarket chains, for example, sell the final product at a price but Farmers have only been paid a very small part. For example, when Europe ended with milk quotas in 2012, farmers in Spain complained that they had surplus milk, they could take more liters to the market but sell it at a price less. They said that they had to sell the milk below what they found difficult to produce and did not earn money, their business was no longer profitable. The same happens with fruits and vegetables. As explained by the UPA agrarian association, " it is a price problem, if a farmer you pay 10 cents for a kilo of oranges he cannot live . " Why criticize the rise in the minimum wage? Since the organizations point out that this has been "by chance", the drop that has filled the glass, but is not the source of his discomfort . The rise in the minimum wage "is a labor cost that is added to a portfolio of costs that farmers already assume, but it is not a problem of salary but of price. If the farmers pay the product as you have to pay it , there would be no problem, "they say in UPA. What other factors have aggravated their situation? The increase in diesel taxation, for example, increases the production costs of farmers, who have to pay more to move their tractors. The US tariffs on some farm products or Brexit have also hit them, as both the United States and the United Kingdom are some of our export markets. How does climate change affect them? The storms, heat at the wrong time, drought or excessive rains ruin the crops. Farmers and ranchers are taking advantage of protests to defend their role in relation to the climate challenge. " Without our activities we would have a more feral and uncontrolled nature and more risk of forest fires and desertification," they say. How have tariffs affected you? The tariffs approved by the US for Spanish products, specifically oil, cheeses or wine, have added more uncertainty to the affected sectors. Although it is still too early to see how they have affected export rates, they argue that it will have an impact, since having to pay a fee to sell to the US, this implies an additional cost, which cannot always be transferred to the final price to the consumer , because it would run the risk of falling sales.In the case of black table olives, which has suffered these rates for more than a year, exports have plummeted.What are the most affected sectors? Oil, for example, has been a very complicated year. The harvest was very good and this caused the prices to fall. The sector requested that a measure contemplated by the EU in these cases be activated: private oil storage. This allows you to save it and thus not have to sell it below the production price. Farmers say that this price crisis is not only due to an excess of oil, or supply and demand, but to speculation or imports of oil from other countries. What do they claim from the Government? farmers and ranchers and demand that they intervene to ensure fair prices. The Law of the food chain is the one that establishes how each of the agents involved in the process must be remunerated: the farmer who grows the tomato, the intermediary who supplies it to the supermarket and the supermarket, which sells it to the consumer at a certain price, for example. Farmers also say that they have been cut back on aid from the European Union and the autonomous communities.

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