After three days of a national, road-transport strike, fruit & veg wholesalers on the Costa Tropical have closed their doors because they can't shift their goods.

The eleven, large, wholesale-market warehouses on the Costa Tropical, who have hundreds of employees between them, have shut down business until the ‘transport situation’ normalises, according to ECOHAL Andalucía. On average between them they move about 600 tonnes of fruit & veg every day.

The Central Government claims that the strike, which began on the 14th, has attracted little following within the road-transport sector, which Ecohal Andalucía does not consider to be the case and accused them of “inactivity” instead of working to solve the problem.

The trouble is that crops continue to collected but there is no way to transport them to national and international markets.

There are some drivers who don’t support the strike and would load produce at this end, but they fear the consequences from pickets when it comes to delivering them.

The trouble is that when crops are ready to harvest, they are ready and that’s that, so farmers can’t wait for things to sort themselves out, so it is they, the producers, who are the worst affected because we are in the middle of a harvesting campaign.

As for the warehouses, even if they could find the lorries, they’re lacking the packaging material because it is not being delivered.

So, why the strike? The Plataforma en Defensa del Sector del Transporte de Mercancías por Carretera Nacional e Internacional says that the sector is at its limit, with costs rising, especially fuel so that their members are operating at a loss.

(News: Andalucia)