On Saturday morning, Greek farmers and producers gave away more than 300 tons of fresh fruit , vegetables and fish in the Athenian industrial suburb of Perissos, as part of their continuing protests and strikes against a new controversial bill that is said to bring chaos to the farmer’s markets sector.
More than 2,000 gathered citizens were waiting up to two hours in advance to get the chance to secure a bag of free produce and support the struggle of Greece’s open-air vendors.
“Open-air farmer’s markets are the last resort for working-class families all around Greece, and they have put us at gunpoint for the sake of big supermarkets and food chains. Our struggle is a struggle of the whole Greek society for cheap and quality food,” the Open-Air Market Producer Federation said in a statement.
Open-air markets are scheduled to open Saturday only in northern Greece, as many consumers have filed complaints to the Federation that produce prices in the region have gone up, with merchants trying to benefit from the continuing strike.
Farmer’s markets vendors are to rally Monday afternoon outside the Greek Parliament where lawmakers are discussing the controversial bill, blocking the traffic flow in downtown Athens. The demonstrators announced that they are determined to continue their struggle and protest actions all over the country.
The farmers are opposed to several provisions of the new bill concerning the selection criteria of farmers and vendors participating in each market, the limited number of stalls attributed to each local market and the heavy fines and penalties imposed on farmers and vendors.
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