Angry farmers could throw Brits’ holidays into chaos as they take to the streets in their tractors to protest in the Canary Islands.
Agricultural workers drove tractors through city streets across the country and disrupted traffic today as they protested against soaring costs and cheap competition from outside the European Union.
The protests in Spain have spread from other EU countries including Germany, France, Italy and Belgium – where protests have at times descended into chaos.
Now farming associations say they are going to back the protests in the Canary Islands too – meaning that it could impact on holidays there later this month.
However farmers there will wait until after a special carnival – the Tenerife Carnival – before they vent their anger, according to reports.
The professional organisations with representation on the islands – COAG, Asaga, UPA and Palca – have set Saturday, February 24 as the date to express their rage with protests in the two capitals Santa Cruz in Tenerife and Las Palmas in Gran Canaria, El Diario reports.
Farmers across the EU say strict environmental rules make them less able to compete on price with farmers in other regions.
They say bureaucracy is holding them back as well as the impacts of large amounts of imports from Ukraine, for which the EU has waived quotas and duties since Russia’s invasion.
All the requests from farmers and stock breeders in the Canaries will be concentrated in a report or manifesto and is expected to be agreed in the next few days by the four farming organisations.
Fernando Clavijo, president of the Canary Islands, said: “In the Canary Islands, as an outermost region, it is more difficult to produce, and if, in addition to these difficulties, the primary sector is suffocated, it ceases to be competitive and dies.”
Just last week experts warned that the Spanish holiday hotspot beloved by Brits is facing imminent collapse.
Experts said that over-tourism has put the Canary Islands and its infrastructure under enormous strain which is no longer sustainable and that if the massive influx of tourists who visit the Canaries is not reduced then it faces “systemic collapse”.
Campaign group Ben Magec-Ecologists in Action has spoken out after tourist figures for 2023 revealed a record number of visitors – 16 million with as many as half of these being British.
