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FARMING

Un oeuf is enough! Mad farmers smash eggs

A group of protesting French farmers have finally cracked, it seems. After becoming fed-up at low prices the farmers have taken matters into their own hands by smashing thousands of eggs of French roads, and say more will bite the dust.

Un oeuf is enough! Mad farmers smash eggs
Smashing: Furious French farmers break 100,000 eggs a night in protest. Photo: Fred Taneau/AFP

A group of rogue French farmers has said 'Un oeuf is enough' and this week went on a furious egg-breaking rampage, destroying tens of thousands on roads and pledging to smash many more in protest against low prices. Farmers have also promised to take more radical action.

"More than 100,000 eggs were destroyed in the Cotes d'Armor (a department in the northwestern region of Brittany)," a spokesman for the unnamed collective of angry poultry farmers, told AFP.

Poultry farmers in France have for several months complained of rock-bottom egg prices due to overproduction — a problem that also affects other countries in the European Union.

They say current prices do not make up for a rise in production costs or investments they had to make as part of an EU directive that came into force in January 2012 to protect the well-being of laying hens.

The spokesman, who wishes to remain anonymous, said masked farmers had broken the 100,000 eggs overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday near a Lidl supermarket and on a roundabout — an act that was also reported in local media.

"We will continue to destroy 100,000 eggs a day until Sunday," the spokesman said, after which he said the protest movement would become more radical "with inevitable collateral damage" if the group's demands are not met.

He said destroying 100,000 eggs a day equates to "five percent of the production" of poultry farmers involved in the collective.

The group called for France's entire egg production to be reduced by 5 percent to help raise prices, and  asked the government to set up a specific area for eggs to be destroyed.

According to Yves-Marie Beaudet, head of the egg section of a union that represents poultry farmers in Brittany, producers currently get paid 75 cents ($1) for a kilogram of eggs — whereas the cost price is 95 cents.

The UGPVB union says the European Union has "15 to 20 million" excess laying hens out of a total of around 350 million.

THis is not the first time in recent months French farmers have taken drastic action to try and protect their livelihoods.

In June The Local reported how Paris was turned into a big farmyard as sheep marched down the Champs Elysees in a farmers' protest over the costs of rearing animals.

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POLITICS

France vows to block EU-South America trade deal in current form

France has vowed to prevent a trade deal between the European Union and the South American Mercosur bloc from being signed with its current terms, as the country is rocked by farmer protests.

France vows to block EU-South America trade deal in current form

The trade deal, which would include agricultural powers Argentina and Brazil, is among a litany of complaints by farmers in France and elsewhere in Europe who have been blocking roads to demand better conditions for their sector.

They fear it would further depress their produce prices amid increased competition from exporting nations that are not bound by strict and costly EU environmental laws.

READ ALSO Should I cancel my trip to France because of farmers’ protests?

“This Mercosur deal, as it stands, is not good for our farmers. It cannot be signed as is, it won’t be signed as is,” Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire told broadcasters CNews and Europe 1.

The European Commission acknowledged on Tuesday that the conditions to conclude the deal with Mercosur, which also includes Paraguay and Uruguay, “are not quite there yet”.

The talks, however, are continuing, the commission said.

READ ALSO 5 minutes to understand French farmer protests

President Emmanuel Macron said Tuesday that France opposes the deal because it “doesn’t make Mercosur farmers and companies abide by the same rules as ours”.

The EU and the South American nations have been negotiating since 2000.

The contours of a deal were agreed in 2019, but a final version still needs to be ratified.

The accord aims to cut import tariffs on – mostly European – industrial and pharmaceutical goods, and on agricultural products.

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