Finnish farmers in massive protest over financial woes

Published March 11, 2016

Organizers say over 3,000 farmers with some 600 tractors have gathered on a central Helsinki square in a protest urging the Finnish government to support the country's agricultural sector suffering on decreasing food prices and EU's Russia sunctions.

Friday's demonstration was staged by the farmers' central union MTK, which said the action was "an emergency call" to politicians to come up with measures help producers' dire straits and "to save domestic food production."

The union said that the income of Finnish farmers has declined fastest in the EU during the last few years in a combination of declining retailer food prices, delays in EU farm subsidy payments and a complete halt in exports to Russia, key market, due to EU's sanctions.

Some farmers drove on their tractors, decorated with slogans like "no farmers-no food," hundreds of kilometers across the Nordic nation to reach Helsinki's central Senate Square.

URL

https://www.foxnews.com/world/finnish-farmers-in-massive-protest-over-financial-woes