a Danone site blocked in Gers; other actions reported in Aude and Haute-Garonne

In Villecomtal-sur-Arros (Gers), around ten agricultural machines were still blocking, on Wednesday November 27, the entrance to the Danone production site, where farmers have been taking turns since late Tuesday afternoon, noted a photographer from Agence France-Presse (AFP). Four foreign trucks filled with perishable dairy products have been stuck since Tuesday evening, according to staff and Rural Coordination (CR) present on site.

A meeting is to be held in the afternoon between the demonstrators and two national executives from the Danone group, who have come to discuss with them, according to the same sources.

For their part, the Young Farmers of Aude blocked the port of Port-la-Nouvelle for several hours on Wednesday morning to demand more economic support, noted an AFP photographer. Around fifty members of this union – the majority within the alliance with the National Federation of Farmers' Unions (FNSEA) – came with around ten tractors and blocked access to this port located around fifty kilometers north of Perpignan.

“An emergency fund to get you through the year”

These farmers from Aude, mainly wine growers, met at dawn to prevent trucks from leaving and entering the site, the third French port on the Mediterranean, where an oil depot is located.

“We are in a department where we are experiencing a terrible drought, we are asking for crop insurance to be remodeled and an emergency fund to get through the year, because we are making loans, loans, loans, but when we already has a lot, it’s complicated”Loïc Escourrou, president of the Young Farmers of Aude, explained to AFP.

“Genevard only lies”they wrote on the asphalt, in reference to the Minister of Agriculture, Annie Genevard.

The blockade was lifted at midday, before a major mobilization of the wine world announced in Carcassonne on Saturday.

“No country without farmers”

In Haute-Garonne, members of the FDSEA31 (Departmental Federation of Farmers' Unions) blocked a roundabout in Beauzelle, on the outskirts of Toulouse, where they built “a mountain of fed up” with straw bales, according to union board member Axel Tran Van.

In Nantes, around fifty tractors were parked in the middle of the day on Wednesday in front of the prefecture, some carrying banners proclaiming “Don’t break my dream of taking over”, “No country without farmers” or “As a child we dream of it, as an adult we die of it”.

A concrete block wall was also erected around midday, in front of the entrance to the prefecture. “We are here to mark the occasion. We denounce the excess of administration in everything we do, the maintenance of ditches, the storage of water. […] We are made promises but nothing progresses”said Mathieu Bouteiller, member of the Young Farmers in Sainte-Pazanne (Loire-Atlantique), which produces milk, cereals and beef.