PARIS: French farmers blocked one of the main motorways linking Paris with the northern city of Lille and Belgium on Friday, causing lengthy traffic jams as part of nationwide protests over low food prices and excessive bureaucracy. Unions have called for the roadblocks in and around Paris to increase pressure on Prime Minister Gabriel Attal’s government, which the farmers accuse of not doing enough to help them.

“We will go right into Paris to highlight our rage, our grievances,” said farmer Matteo Legrand.

The Paris region branch of the farmers’ FNSEA union plans to set up 11 roadblocks on the main commuter axes around Paris.

Attal’s office said he would make a speech addressing the farmers’ concerns during a visit to a mountain village near the Spanish border, some 800 kilometres from Paris.

Scrambling to ease tensions, the finance and farm ministers discussed with food industry officials fair prices for produce — a ‘number one priority’ for farmers who say they are suffering from the government’s drive to lower consumer prices.

“The central issue is the farmers’ revenue,” Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said after the meeting, adding that the government would “double down” on enforcing a law aimed at guaranteeing fair prices for farmers.

Le Maire has previously spent months pressuring food giants like Carrefour and Danone to lower their prices after a phase of high inflation, thereby earning the ire of farmers. But on Friday he vowed to be “pitiless” towards the food company giants and supermarkets to help ensure adequate financial compensation for agricultural producers. Many farmers in France, the European Union’s biggest agricultural producer, say they face increasing pressure from retailers to cut their prices and that this threatens their livelihood.

Published in Dawn, January 27th, 2024