Greece-Farmers Protests.

GREECE.

FARMERS PROTEST.

TRUCK drivers broke through a border post between Bulgaria and Greece and clashed with police and striking Greek farmers who had blocked the road yesterday, police said.

The truckers crossed the border from Bulgaria and set light to tyres as the farmers’ protest against falling commodity prices entered its second day.

The farmers used tractors to block highways in the north and center of the country and seal off the main airport on the southern island of Crete.

They set up a dozen roadblocks in the northern Macedonia region, notably on the Egnatia highway at Kavala which leads to Turkey, as well as the main highway between the capital Athens and Thessaloniki, the country’s second largest city.

About 20 flights at Heraklion airport on Crete were canceled after farmers blocked access roads. They left the airport yesterday morning after assurances that they could meet Agriculture Minister Sotiris Hatzigakis.

Hatzigakis told state television NET Tuesday he would do "everything possible to find a solution to the farmers’ problems."

Farmers are particularly angry about the plunging prices of cotton, corn and wheat, which are set by the European Union.

"We are shocked at the government’s indifference," Vangelis Boutas, head of the Karditsa Farmers Federation, had said Tuesday.

"In 2007 we sold cotton at 42 cents per kilo, and in 2008 the price dropped to 17 cents," he said.