Farmers from Larisa, Karditza, and Trikala will close the Tembi passage with their tractors. The villagers from the Karditza region started demonstrating from today by taking their tractors on the road near Ithea.

“We believe that the fight we are having is common because the farmer’s demands are many and are all serious. We can always use more people in this battle. Whoever wants our demands for the decrease of productivity value and for the payment of all lost incomes to be granted right away – get out on the road,” says Kostas Telios from the union of young farmers for “Ethnos” newspaper.

According to plan, the Larisa villagers will gather at the Tembi passage on Tuesday at noon and in the afternoon, they will close the Athens-Thessaloniki highway. Farmers from Trikala and Karditza will join them as well. At the same time, villagers from Ftiotida, Almiro Magnisia, and Farsala will block the road near Alamana.

According to primary data, the tractors will remain on the roads until next Saturday. The Ministry of Agricultural Development is following closely the events but at least in the next few days, Minister Sotiris Hadtzidakis will not go to talk to the villagers.

The villagers demands are for 400 million Euros, in order to be able to live through the year. Their anger became unsettling when the government gave 28 billion Euros to the banks but it could never find few millions of Euros to support the villagers.

The crisis hit the farmers and this is one of the toughest winters for them. The productivity value jumped high – fertilizers, chemicals, and gas prices are the same from the time a gas barrel cost 100-120 Dollars. At the same time, the product prices keep going down.

The farmers sell olive oil at the same price they did 20 years ago. The purest olive oil is bought up for 1.80 Euros per liter, which means that the villager needs to sell two kilos of olive oil in order to buy a pack of cigarettes. Last year the olive oil price was 3.30 Euros per kilo and it kept it until September. Due to the crisis, consumption has fallen and there is also high competition from Spain and Italy?

The same situation is facing the producers of cotton, corn, stock breeders, and milk producers. Due to the crisis in the last few years, around 10 000 stock breeders have left the production procedure.