Brussels – Thousands of EU farmers, on Monday held a mass demonstration in front of EU headquarters, in Brussels protesting falling food prices and demanding help.
The demonstration by 6,000 farmers and 2,000 tractors came ahead of the Monday, extraordinary meeting of the agriculture ministers from 28 EU member states.
Copa-Cogeca farm trade union, one of the organisers of the event, said the mass demonstration was held “in response to the drastic situation hitting EU dairy, pork, fruit and vegetable and beef producers”.
It said the EU agricultural producers have lost 13 billion dollars in agriculture due to the food embargo against Russia.
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The trade union said in August 2014, Moscow imposed a one-year ban on the import of certain food products from the countries that had introduced sanctions against Russia.
It said the food ban was later extended for another year.
The union said the demonstrators demanded actions from EU ministers, to help alleviate the situation in the immediate- and longer-term sense.
Meanwhile, the Council of the EU has announced that the ministers would discuss the state of the EU’s agriculture markets,
It said it would give priority to the milk prices in particular, as well as the impact of the Russian sanctions during the extraordinary meeting.
In France also, it was reported that thousands of farmers, and more than 1,500 tractors, took to streets in Paris demanding fair prices and more support from their government. (Reauters/NAN)