Portuguese milk and meat producers rally against the “dictatorship” of supermarkets

Portuguese milk and meat producers rallied on Tuesday, August 23, with a slow march that brought together more than 60 tractors between Ovar and Estarreja (Aveiro region, Portugal), an action pushed by the CNA – Confederação Nacional da Agricultura and its affiliate APPLC - Associação Portuguesa de Produtores de Leite e Carne.   Milk producers are in a distressing situation: milk prices are very low but production costs very high. To get a more concrete idea, currently, on average, for each liter of milk produced a farmer deals with a loss of 8 cents, devastating!   Among the measures demanded by milk producers are: that conditions for production outflow for milk and meat be at better prices; that more aid be provided to allow production to continue; and that public mechanisms of production and market control, like the milk quotas were, be recovered.   The action began with two rallies in Ovar and Estarreja, followed by a slow march along several kilometers, through the road EN 109, up to three shopping centers.   There, the farmers made a human chain, in a symbolic gesture of protest against the “dictatorship” imposed by supermarkets that, with their discounts and generic brands (supermarket trademarks), promote unnecessary imports and, through the low prices payed to farmers, crush national production.   From there the tractor column went down to the City Hall of Estarreja, where a document addressed to the deputy mayor was handed out with proposals and complaints from farmers. This same document will then be sent to other governmental bodies, such as the Minister of Agriculture.   Original publication of article can be found here