PARIS (Reuters) – A group of protesting farmers on Thursday sought to block operations at the port of Bordeaux in southwestern France, as a new bout of agricultural anger intensified in Europe’s largest crop-producing country.
Farmers in their tractors blocked all of the access roads to the port, which links the city to the Atlantic via the Garonne river, Jose Perez, a local labour representative from the Coordination Rurale union told Reuters.
“We will stay here because we still don’t have answers (from the government)”, Perez said.
For many farmers, the port, which also includes a grains terminal, stands for what they call unfair competition from foreign producers who aren’t subject to the same regulation.
A push by the European Union to wrap up long-running trade negotiations with Latin American countries has rekindled anger in France, where farmers were already frustrated by rain-hit harvests, livestock disease outbreaks and a snap election that delayed promised support measures.
The port’s operator did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
A spokesperson from the local prefecture in charge of security said that the protests had not affected port operations so far, adding that she was unaware of any planned police intervention. “For now, we’re just talking,” she said.
(Reporting by Sybille de la Hamaide, Forrest Crellin, and Tassilo Hummel; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)
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