Furious French farmers are smashing hundreds of thousands of fresh eggs in a protest at cripplingly low prices they blame on the European Union.
In bizarre scenes in the northwest region of Brittany, piles of mangled shell, yolk and albumen are being dumped on main roads next door to supermarkets.
'The mess is terrible and soon it will start to smell very badly indeed,' said one shopworker. 'It's a strange protest, but one which will create a huge amount of publicity.'
French egg producers throw crates of eggs from the back of a truck onto the sidewalk in front of the taxes and internal revenue service office
A group of twenty egg producers in Brittany is protesting the low market value and pricing of eggs and called for up to 100 000 eggs (5 % of French daily production) to be broken everyday so as to raise the egg's market value
Many of the protestors have been wearing masks as they take the thousands of eggs out in the middle of the night and then throw them on to the road
Poultry farmers say they have been forced to start destroying their stock because of overproduction in the EU.
They insist that they are barely making any profit at all because of a strict EU directive which came into force in January aimed at protecting the well-being of hens.
It led to increased production costs which have not been reflected in the price of eggs.
Many of the protestors have been wearing masks as they take the thousands of eggs out in the middle of the night and then throw them on to the road.
Poultry farmers say they have been forced to start destroying their stock because of overproduction in the EU
A spokesman for the protestors threatened that radical action would increase in intensity 'with inevitable collateral damage' if the group's demands were not met
French farmers are notorious for their extreme protests when their livelihoods are threatened
'We will continue to destroy 100,000 eggs a day until Sunday,' a spokesman for the protest group told AFP, France's national news agency.
He threatened that radical action would increase in intensity 'with inevitable collateral damage' if the group's demands were not met.
One hundred thousand eggs a day equates to five per cent of he number of eggs being produced each day by the farmers involved in the dispute.
One hundred thousand eggs a day equates to five per cent of he number of eggs being produced each day by the farmers involved in the dispute
They want France's entire egg production to be reduced by five per cent to help raise prices, and called on President Francois Hollande's government to help with the smashing
In the northwest region of Brittany, piles of mangled shell, yolk and albumen are being dumped on main roads next door to supermarkets
Two months ago farmers turned Paris into a giant farm by leading thousands of sheep, cows and pigs on a march through the capital
They want France's entire egg production to be reduced by five per cent to help raise prices, and called on President Francois Hollande's government to help with the smashing.
French farmers are notorious for their extreme protests when their livelihoods are threatened.
Two months ago they turned Paris into a giant farm by leading thousands of sheep, cows and pigs on a march through the capital.
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