Around 60 protesters gathered at Lidl Northern Ireland’s distribution centre at Nutt’s Corner, Co Antrim, on Tuesday night, managing to block delivery lorries from entering or leaving the site with tractors and 4X4s.

Within minutes of the protest starting, a lorry was blocked and was made to drive away from the depot. Reports suggest other lorries were queued up away from the site, waiting for the demonstration to finish.

Three lorries that arrived early in the evening were queued immediately outside the gate on the hard shoulder. Police eventually arrived at the scene, but protesters refused to leave until around 11.15pm.

Last night’s protest has followed on from similar demonstrations over the past few weeks across Northern Ireland. Participating farmers have been unhappy with current prices paid for farm commodities and the help local government and the European Commission are offering. However, this was the first protest not to occur at an individual supermarket store.

The demonstrations have been organised locally by individual groups of farmers without involvement of the main farming organisations. The Facebook page “Fair Price Farming NI” has been used as a medium to help organise and publicise protests.

Organisations

However, Farmers For Action (FFA) UK Northern Ireland co-ordinator William Taylor was present at last night’s protest.

“With everything that is going on in farming, Farmers For Action across the UK want to let everyone know how bad things are, not just for milk producers but across the board in all sectors,” he said.

Taylor also commented on the meetings in London of various farmers’ organisations, including FFA and the Ulster Farmers’ Union (UFU), with Defra secretary Liz Truss.

He said: “It is great to see a united front for farmers and co-operation across organisations.”

Many protesters last night were critical of the work the organisations were doing in London, particularly of the UFU, by claiming they had not engaged with farmers on the ground and only became involved with protesters once sufficient numbers had turned out.

“These protests have continued to draw attention to the issues we face and the greed of corporate companies. Although poor prices are a global issue right now, supermarkets here need to be held to account for the way they sell our produce,” one protester said.

He added: “The protests have also let farmers see they are not alone in these difficult times, something that is very important among the farming community.”

Dairy farmer protests have had an impact