Growers dig in for another day

BULL-HEADED potato growers yesterday refused to budge from the Larnaca-Ayia Napa motorway they have been blockading for a week now.

The group had taken to the streets with their tractors in response to the government’s flat refusal to satisfy their demands for compensation for a poor trade year and incentives to leave the once-subsidised sector.

The farmers’ counterparts in Paphos yesterday moved menacingly close to the highway leading to the city’s international airport, but shied away from blocking the route, parking their vehicles on the curbside.

They were awaiting instructions from the Pancyprian Potato Growers’ Association, which last night held a meeting with other agricultural organisations to decide on further action.

Over at Dhekelia – the growers’ base camp – protesting farmers yesterday began setting up toilet facilities in the area, a sign they were determined to stay.

Meanwhile some 50 police officers have been assigned to monitor the area round the clock.
The farmers were digging in after an impromptu visit to the site by Agriculture Minister Timis Efthymiou on Monday failed to break the deadlock.

And yesterday Finance Minister Michalis Sarris repeated there was “no way” the government would satisfy the farmers’ demands, instead urging the protesters to make use of EU-funded grants.

“There are other ways of restructuring the [agriculture] sector, but for months the farmers have not taken advantage of this opportunity,” he said.

He went on to deny suggestions that procedures for receiving these grants were long-winded.
With the government unreceptive to their demands, the farmers momentarily turned to parliament, only to get another cold shoulder.

Earlier this week the House Agriculture Committee said it would not mediate in the standoff between the potato growers and the government.

The farmers have also received little sympathy from an inconvenienced public, forced to take the scenic route to and fro Larnaca because of the blockade.

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