Spain’s agricultural sector officially joined in the cross-Europe protests Feb. 6, with roadblocks and logistics delays popping up throughout the country. 

The industry demands urgent reforms to the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), one of the main legislations of the European Union.

Farmers and stockbreeders accuse excessive bureaucracy, and little to no regulation of cheap agricultural imports from non-EU countries, which are detrimental to the prices of Spanish products, as well as the increase in the cost of raw materials.

Thirty percent of the EU budget is administered through the CAP to finance farmers and rural areas of the EU nations. For Spain in particular, it entails the injection of 4,875 million euros in direct aid that the autonomous communities grant to farmers.

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According to figures from the Ministry of Agriculture, by 2023 there were a total of 622,404 registered farmers and ranchers.

Alfredo Cruces, a Spanish farmer, explains that the movement is not associated with any union, but is born spontaneously from "general fed-upness" and through social networks.

"I think it is going to grow. On Saturday 10 the self-employed in the transport sector will decide whether to join us. It is also a very pressured sector," he says.

The sector has also called for the repeal of the "Agenda 2030" which, among its most controversial proposals, has the creation of eco-regimes that, the farmers allege, do not consider the particular realities of the country's rural areas.

Photo by 20minutos / Ismael Guerrero