Another Iamb war ahead?
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• UK refrigerated transport operators carrying frozen meat into France could find themselves in the middle of a new lamb war if irate French farmers decide to escalate their recent series of attacks on continental reefers.
On Friday, October 3, two trucks from Belgium and Holland suspected of carrying live British sheep were intercepted by militant sheep farmers in the department of Indre, near Chateauroux on the RN20.
The 700 animals were offloaded in the centre of the town and sprayed with a chemical making the sheep temporarily inedible.
Two days later on the RN10 south of Poitiers a French truck from Vitres in Normandy, also suspected of carrying British beef and lamb carcases, was stopped and two frozen carcases were taken and burned.
The action by the French farmers follows the collapse of home meat market prices and the reluctance of the French government to give the farmers additional subsidies.
So far no truck or driver has been harmed in what is still seen as purely local action.
In 1984 French farmers carried out a more intensive campaign against meat imported from the UK, and carried out a number of attacks on vehicles including some from Britain.
The RI-IA says it deplores the recent attacks on hauliers on the continent, and has expressed its concern that no action be taken against UK operators.