French farmers blockade border roads in protest against cheap imports

Demonstrations against falling prices prevent over 400 trucks from bringing in goods from Germany and Spain as president insists government is 'by their side'

French farmers have blockaded roads from Germany and Spain and stopped hundreds of trucks bringing in foreign meat, vegetables and dairy produce in renewed protests against falling prices and cheap imports, despite the French government's attempts to contain what could soon become a summer of agricultural discontent.

More than 1,000 farmers in the north-eastern region of Alsace used tractors to obstruct six roads from Germany. Franck Sander, the local head of the FNSEA, France's main farming union, told Agence France-Presse that up to 300 trucks bringing food over the border had been stopped. He said: "We made a lorry carrying Babybel [cheese] turn back. Consumers think this is French but the cheese comes from Slovakia." Sander told France Info radio that farmers wanted a "level playing field" within Europe.