Cotton crop ‘fraud list’ published
The last militant cotton farmers manning a roadblock outside Thessaloniki in northern Greece appear set to abandon their protest today, following talks with government officials late yesterday. Meanwhile, backing up its claim that extensive fraud had been involved in this year’s crop declarations by cotton farmers, the Agriculture Ministry yesterday published a list of 603 farmers who had grown between two and three times as much cotton as they were supposed to. According to the ministry, these farmers then sought European Union subsidies for the surplus crop. Ministry officials have summoned another 15,000 farmers for explanations regarding the size of their crops. Last week’s protests, in which cotton farmers blocked highways in central and northern Greece, were to demand that subsidies be paid for more of this year’s crop than the EU’s quotas allowed. Macedonian farmers are to discuss today whether to stop their roadblock at the Axios bridge on a highway near Thessaloniki.
