PHOTO | VIDEO | In Naples the invasion of one hundred tractors:90% of companies at risk

The producers also paraded along the seafront, cheered by the citizens

NAPLES – Lots of applause and chants of incitement from Neapolitan citizens to the farmers, many of them young, who took to the streets today on board their tractors. About one hundred vehicles, leaving from various locations in the province of Naples, who crossed the streets of the center, also reaching the Neapolitan seafront.The tricolor flag flies on the tractors and there are signs with various slogans, such as "Hands off our land", "We want to live from agriculture" and "You are depriving us of our future".Many onlookers and tourists take photos and film the procession.

In a letter that they intend to send to the government through the prefect, the "Free farmers of the province of Naples" highlight their major concerns - "the volatility of product prices, the increase in production costs, the impact of climate changes, limited access to markets, international competition based on lower standards” -, adding some proposals for intervention.
Paolo Petrella, a farmer from Acerra, raises the alarm:“Many of us produce potatoes.You pay 1.50 euros for a 100 gram bag of chips, we earn 15 cents per kilogram. We can't do it anymore."

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“The main problem – he underlines – lies in the unfair competition coming from non-EU products, which do not follow European protocols or even those of Italy, because we are a country with the highest control over plant protection products.We produce healthy food for all Italians and we want to continue to do so, but asking to be listened to.There are objective difficulties that prevent the right remuneration for those of us who produce the raw material."

“Only the province of Naples counts today 10 thousand agricultural companies.90% risk closing and they are companies that produce excellent products – explains Vito Lombardi -.There are many brands from the province of Naples and Campania, envied in the domestic world, but the European policies of recent years have forced us to close because production costs are higher than revenues".For Filippo Di Marco, also from Acerra, “Made in Italy must always be supported. The government must open a negotiating table because it must also listen to the farmers of the province of Naples, which are many.The one present today in Naples is only a representation of 100 tractors, but there are obviously many companies, and those that have closed are already many. We're not here asking for income or subsidies. We are here because we want to work."