France: Pig farmers cause road blocks, meat inspected
French pig farmers are experiencing a major loss in earnings, they say that it is due to foreign meat making its way into the country. As a result, some farmers have set up road blocks in the West of France in order to inspect meat trucks.
According to a media report, “We are checking every refrigerated truck to see if it contains French meat, if it carries the ‘viande porcine française’ label (‘French porcine meat’), or if it’s foreign meat. If it’s French meat but without an official stamp, we will round up all the trucks and bring them to the local authorities. If it’s foreign meat, then it will have an entirely different destination,” said Nathalie Marchand, from the chamber of agriculture in Ille-et-Vilaine, Brittany.
France’s minister for agriculture, Stéphane Le Foll, said: “I will organise this and force everyone in the industry to see to it that they increase prices.”
French pig breeders have said that they are simply not being paid enough. The farmers are losing about 10,000 euros per month since the beginning of April, with a decrease of 30 cents per kilo of pig. Farmers want foreign meat to be subject to the same regulations as French meat.
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