Roundup: French farmers lift road blocks at German border

Farmers in France's Alsace region lifted road and bridge blockades Monday afternoon following a meeting with officials in Strasbourg.

Local members of the main French farmers' union had set up road blocks between France and Germany, including five bridges over the River Rhine, in protest at what they claim is "unfair competition" from imported food products.

Representatives of the Departmental Federation of Farmers' Unions and the Young Farmers of the Lower Rhine announced the end of their "Operation Border Control", which began on Sunday evening, following the meeting in Strasbourg.

The farmers said they had managed to secure the promise of a meeting with the country's minister of agriculture.

Between Sunday night and Monday morning, the farmers used tractors to block six border crossings between France and Germany. They then targeted trucks carrying food products and agricultural raw materials sending some drivers back into Germany.

"We turned back between 200 and 300 trucks, transporting products that represent unfair competition," said the regional president of the farmers union Franck Sander.

Over a thousand livestock and cereal farmers have been mobilized to carry out this operation, he added.

The union representative said local union members would remain mobilized "pending results" of further meetings.

"Before the end of August, other actions will take place," he warned.

These could include targeting supermarkets and other actors the farmers believe have not kept to previous commitments to ease the pressure on farm incomes, he said.

Sander insisted the government must find "concrete solutions to end these competitive distortions" with farmers in neighboring countries.

Over-regulation and differences in labor costs are not among new measures recently announced by the French government, the Alsace farmers said.

These issues will be discussed during a meeting with the Minister of Agriculture, Stephane Le Foll, although the date has not yet been set.

Last week, protests by farmers also took place across France. In the southwest of the country, hundreds of farmers installed road blocks on Sunday night and searched dozens of trucks from Spain, threatening to unload meat or fruit destined for the French market.

The national president of the main farmers' union, Xavier Beulin, said Monday in Le Parisien that "following the agreement we have reached with the government, prices must go up in the coming days".

According to the union boss, "the French are willing to pay more, which is encouraging".

"The agreement on increases in milk prices will give farmers some relief until December. But for beef, the big retailers and food processors are just half way along the road with the commitments they made in June," commented Beulin. Endit