Davex sends writ to save its onions
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• A British firm whose driver was attacked by French farmers last week has issued the French government with a writ demanding a safe passage for its trucks. The farmers are angry about cheap imports of onions from Turkey.
Peter Davis, managing director of Lincolnshire fruit and vegetable importer Davex, also wants £1.5m compensation for damage to the vehicle and for loss of earnings. He says 50 trucks due to deliver produce to his firm are stuck in Turkey because of threats from the French farmers.
The driver who was attacked was working for a French haulage company contracted by Davex through its sister company Louth International Freight. About 200 farmers stopped his lorry near Roscoff in Brittany, sprayed the load with fertilizer and crushed the onions with tractors. Louth's transport manager Tracy Bontoft says the driver was forced out of the lorry at gunpoint.
"The police didn't try to stop it but took him away for his own safety," she says.
Farmers have been threatening the firm receiving the goods since the contract, for two or three loads of onions a week, began earlier this year. "There has been a gradual build up to the trouble," adds Bontoft.
The incident is the latest in a long line of protests by French farmers over imports. The Road Haulage Association, which demanded tougher policing from the French authorities following a spate of attacks on meat lorries in the autumn, has repeated its call: "We are disappointed because of assurances we had last year from the French government which said it would take action against offenders," says director-general Bryan Colley.