Antwerp Port, one of the biggest container ports in Europe saw hundreds of farmers blocking roads around the port demanding better pay and working conditions.
Lots of similar actions have been initiated in half a dozen other countries in Europe such as France, Belgium, Spain, and the Netherlands among others. Authorities have stated that the access roads and tunnels leading up to the port have been blocked by around 500 tractors.
Farmers are demanding more lenient environmental regulations and to be better insulated against cheap imports flooding the market. FNSEA, France’s biggest farming union has warned that they would resume blockading public roads again in France if all of their demands are not met.
Stephen Van Fraechem, the director of Alfaport; an association of port operators, expressed that the operations are heavily disrupted and that no freight can be delivered or picked up while farmers on tractors are blocking the road. He further stated that the movement is costing companies millions of dollars as the protests continue, even though they play no part in the conflict.
The protests are further compounding the woes of port operators, particularly in light of the recent attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea are further compounding the situation. Van Frechem stated that the attacks are causing shipping companies to opt for longer routes and then arrive at a port that they cannot unload at.
