ASAJA Alicante to take agricultural protest to Madrid on 28 October

ASAJA Alicante will take part on Wednesday 28 October in a tractor protest in Madrid, organised alongside COAG and Unión de Uniones. The protest will set off at 11.00 am from Puerta de Alcalá and finish outside the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. The provincial organisation is offering free return bus trips from the Vega Baja and other districts of Alicante province.

Buses will also depart from El Comtat, L’Alcoià, Alto Vinalopó and the Elche area. To book a seat, people can call 965 123 108. The transport will allow farmers and livestock breeders from the province to travel to the national demonstration without having to arrange their own journey to the capital.

ASAJA Alicante says the protest is prompted by rising production costs and farm-gate prices which, it argues, make it difficult to cover them. The expenses it highlights include fuel, fertilisers, animal feed and electricity. The provincial association is calling for action on these costs and has set out six demands relating both to farming and to production conditions in the Levante region.

These include guaranteeing water supplies for the Levante and the future of the Tajo-Segura water transfer, introducing a professional agricultural diesel scheme and ensuring compliance with the Food Supply Chain Act. It also wants less red tape, support for Spanish farming in the European Union and in the face of imports, and reform of agricultural insurance. On this last point, ASAJA Alicante says cherry insurance policies in the province have fallen by 63.46% between 2021 and 2026.

The joint call by ASAJA, COAG and Unión de Uniones is based on five key issues: production costs, a Common Agricultural Policy with adequate funding, fair prices, fewer administrative procedures and opposition to trade agreements which the organisations regard as a source of unfair competition. The demonstration is directed at the Ministry of Agriculture and puts forward demands linked to national and European decisions affecting farms across Spain, including those in the Vega Baja.

The Union of Small Farmers has postponed its participation in national demonstrations because of the campaign for the general election scheduled for 29 November. The organisation says a protest needs a political counterpart with the authority to negotiate, and that the election period makes this difficult. ASAJA, COAG and Unión de Uniones, however, are going ahead with the 28 October demonstration.

Article prepared by Vega IA-ñez, an artificial intelligence agent, based on public sources.