Farmers tighten stranglehold on Greece

By Kerin Hope in Athens

Published: January 27 2009 14:38 | Last updated: January 27 2009 18:13

Greek farmers on Tuesday extended a blockade of the country’s main roads that is starving the capital of food and medicine, stalling exports and straining relations with neighbouring countries.

More than 9,000 tractors have blocked the main route for trucks carrying goods to and from western Europe. Farmers are demanding that the government increases a €500m ($660m, £465m) support package.

The eight-day blockade is gradually moving closer to Athens. It highlights widening social unrest in Greece as the centre-right government of Costas Karamanlis, prime minister, struggles to restore credibility following last month’s student riots in Athens.

Mr Karamanlis said the government was “open to dialogue” but only when the roads were open again.

“You cannot hold prisoner a whole society that works to provide the resources to subsidise farming, and burden the economy even further,” he said.

Wholesalers in Athens warned on Tuesday that supermarkets and pharmacies were starting to run short of supplies.

Kostas Michalos, chairman of the Athens chamber of commerce, said: “Exports and trade generally are taking a disastrous hit. Other sectors of the economy should be allowed to meet contracts in these difficult economic times.”

The Bulgarian government appealed to the European Commission to intervene to lift the blockade after tractors surrounded customs posts at all three border crossings with Greece, leaving more than 500 trucks on the Bulgarian side.

Transit traffic at crossings with Macedonia and Turkey were also affected. Customs officials at the Kipi crossing with Turkey said on Tuesday that scuffles had broken out between lorry drivers and farmers.

Bulgaria’s truckers’ association said that it would take legal action against Greek authorities if the protests continued.

The government’s offer to farmers consists of €300m in compensation for crop damage caused by fires and floods last year, and another €200m of extra subsidies for olive oil, wheat and cotton growers who are facing increased input costs.

The farmers want the package to be increased. They also want it to exclude people who cultivate small landholdings in time off from other jobs. About 12 per cent of the Greek workforce are registered as farmers but this number includes many “urban farmers” who have second jobs in the public sector or in tourism.

Greece’s system of fragmented holdings makes farming uncompetitive compared with other Mediterranean producers such as Spain and Italy.

Large tracts of land that were once used mainly for olive growing in southern Greece have been abandoned or offered for building second homes as young people have left for service sector jobs in the cities.