THE FARMERS OF LATVIA: WE HAVE NOTHING TO LOSE, TEMPERS ARE WEARING THIN

Thousands of farmers had gathered on the roads of Latvia last week. More than 20 protest actions of Latvian farmers took place throughout the country. A long column of agricultural vehicles blocked the Riga-Ventspils highway, of the Tukuma region. Framers from Vidzeme drove the dozens of tractors to Riga stopping in Jugla. Near Liepaja, farmers burned a portrait of the Prime Minister Ivars Godmanis.

Farmers requested from the government to make a decision to resolve the problem in a few days. The patience of the people was simply exhausted. Vehicles, tractors, fuel tankers, and other agricultural vehicles lined up along the Riga-Ventspils highway not blocking the movement. The demonstrators were waiting for arrival of the minister of agriculture, but according to organizers, he had stayed in the capital, not far from which proceeded a similar protest. People talked about it with disgust and did not hide their indignation over government nonfeasance. Latvian farmers do not know how to return their loans. They either get subsidies that are too small or do not get them at all. They are upset by the fact that they are offered unfair prices for raw diary and wheat. While retailers make profit from sales, farmers barely make ends and are waiting for their property to be taken away any day soon.

This time farmers were trying to make fun of their problems by stretching placards with satiric contexts: “Warning! Desperate farmers on the road”, “Nothing special!”. Another slogan on the milk truck said: “You took away our sugar, but milk - we won’t give up!” Farmers, on behalf of other Latvian citizens, were indignant over the gradual destruction of the food processing industry. And now the agricultural sector is facing a very difficult period.

Farmers request the authority to set price selling on milk production, cutting it by 6-8% percent of the loans, eliminating penalties, creating the export agency within the ministry of agriculture, providing farmers with at least one processing plant, and forbid land selling to foreigners.

Farmers warned the Council of Ministers, with the slogan pinned to their pitchforks, taking to the streets of Riga if ministers do not take effective measures within the week.