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Farmers dump 15,000 litres of Portuguese milk in Galicia protest
Unións Agrarias says foreign imports are pushing prices down and threatening local farms
Farmers intercepted a tanker truck in Teixeiro, in the municipality of Curtis in A Coruña, on Friday morning and tipped out around 15,000 litres of milk that had come from Portugal. According to Unións Agrarias, the load was heading to the Inleit plant in Teixeiro. The action is the latest move in a protest campaign by the agricultural group, which says milk imports from Portugal and France are flooding into Galicia and helping to push prices lower. Unións Agrarias argues that this is leaving local farms in a weaker position and putting their future at risk. It also says the industry is ignoring the Food Chain Law by bringing in raw materials “at bargain prices” in order to improve profits.
The union has also sharply criticised the Galician regional government, which says it has found no evidence of a massive inflow of foreign milk distorting the market. Unións Agrarias disagrees, saying anyone standing outside processing plants can see the steady stream of tankers arriving. It warned: “If the authorities don’t act, they will have us to contend with.”
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Tensions in the dairy sector have been building in recent days as negotiations over new contracts continue. Last Saturday, members of the same organisation staged another protest at a Cash Galicia store in Santiago de Compostela, where they dumped cartons of imported milk to highlight their anger at the lower price proposals being put forward by the industry.
With the latest incident in Teixeiro, the message from the farmers is clear. They say they will not accept price cuts that are, in their words, unsustainable and unfair, especially when many farms are already under severe pressure.
Unións Agrarias says the sector must be protected from what it sees as damaging competition from imported milk, and it is promising to keep up the pressure if nothing changes.
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Image: digital representation
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