Trucks and lorries continue their protest against high fuel prices. The loading and unloading of food from the warehouses of large-scale retail chains in the Caserta area has stopped. The Bausan gate of the commercial port of Naples was also blocked. The consequence is increasingly empty supermarket shelves: there is a lack of fruit, vegetables and fresh products. The president of Confagricoltura Campania: "We understand the reasons but we risk throwing away the food"
Trucks and trucks stop due to expensive fuel (WHAT HAPPENS). The protest of hauliers and farmers which is causing supply problems in supermarkets between Caserta and Naples, but also in the other provinces of Campania, does not subside. For days, the shelves of grocery stores have been increasingly empty: the main shortage is fresh products which, due to delays in deliveries and difficulties in conservation, risk going bad causing huge losses for producers.
Commercial port of Naples blocked
The mobilization has already been going on for a few days: the truck drivers have blocked the loading and unloading operations of food from the warehouses of large food distribution chains located in the industrial area of Carinaro, in the Caserta area. The protest also reached the commercial port of Naples: some trucks blocked the Bausan gate, also causing traffic disruption on the A1, particularly in the access area to the Campania capital. The situation is currently peaceful: the demonstrators are preventing the transit of trucks heading to the embarkation points, instead allowing cars to pass regularly. Eliseo Cuccaro, president of the Central Tyrrhenian Sea Port System Authority, confirmed the situation: "All port gates are currently free and until recently logistics were functioning regularly. However, we have received reports of a blockade, outside the port area, along the access road to the Bausan gate, which involves heavy vehicles and which is now progressively limiting the traffic of goods".
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The islands are at risk
The first to suffer the repercussions of the strike are the Campania islands. After the blockade of the commercial port of Naples, the next interrupted connections could be those with the islands of Ischia, Capri and Procida. The risk, then, is that boarding for the ferries leaving this evening from Naples for Palermo could also be blocked. To get around the blockade, several hauliers are apparently trying to reach the embarkations through the city roads, using the accesses to the airport along via Marina. Others, headed to Ischia and Procida, are instead falling back on trips departing from the port of Pozzuoli.
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Confcooperative: "Ensure passage of perishable products"
“Transport difficulties are affecting companies already affected by price increases and the climate,” commented Mariano Rago, president of the Campania agri-food and fishing Confcooperative. "Geopolitical tensions and conflicts have contributed to the instability of supplies and the increase in costs of fuels, fertilizers, chemical raw materials, plastics and packaging materials. Expenses that accompany the product from the field to delivery and which companies struggle to recover through sales prices." The president of Confcooperative agri-food and fishing underlined that he understands "the reasons for the protest, but it is necessary to guarantee the passage of perishable products, as our national president Raffaele Drei has already asked. Fruit, vegetables and greens follow the times of nature when the time of harvesting arrives, we cannot wait for transport to restart. Even the fish must reach the markets quickly. The stoppage of transport can thus nullify months of work and investments, leaving companies with all the costs incurred. The blockade of transport can also prevent the arrival of the raw materials necessary for work, putting at risk the continuity of the activities. Meanwhile, the collections stop, but salaries, suppliers and installments remain to be paid".
Confagricoltura: "There is a risk of throwing away food"
The president of Confagricoltura Campania, Fabrizio Marzano, has a similar opinion: "We are alongside the transporters and we recognize the reasons for their protests, but we cannot ignore the heavy consequences that this situation is causing on agricultural companies. After an already difficult season on the climate front, today thousands of products risk remaining stuck in companies and being lost, while supermarket shelves risk remaining empty". The president then drew attention above all to fruit and vegetable production, "the fruit of months of work and investments, which risk ending up wasted due to the impossibility of reaching the markets. It is a paradoxical situation, there is a risk of throwing away food while consumers may not find it on the shelves. It is above all the companies in Southern Italy that pay the highest price".
