Furious farmers have used tractors and hay bales to barricade roads across France to protest low farmgate prices, "excessive" environmental protection regulations and free-trade agreements allowing "cheap" agricultural imports to enter the country.
Authorities have confirmed that 1,000 farmers and 500 tractors were currently blocking at least eight major roads within 8 and forty kilometres of Paris.
Protest organisers have predicted those numbers could swell in coming days as farmers also set fire to hay bales and dump crates of imported produce as they edge closer to the French capital.
Farmers have been quoted as saying their intention was the "starving" out of Paris, with commercial trade and fresh food deliveries already reportedly being delayed in major traffic snarls. Organisers however have been more publicly circumspect.
Meanwhile, protesters have also blocked access to one of Europe's biggest ports in Zeebrugge on Wednesday as Belgian farmers voiced disapproval of new nature restoration rules.
While the so-called "Siege of Paris" protest began earlier this week pockets of farmers have been blocking smaller French roads since January 18.
The movement scored a victory four days ago when the French government met protesters' demands to drop its plans to cut diesel tax breaks for agricultural use.
Organisers said farmers have also hit the streets as increasing input costs, increasing environmental regulations and imports from nations where farmers enjoy fewer constraints and lower production costs hammer bottom lines.
Newly-elected French prime minister Gabriel Attal told the nation's National Assembly this week that farming was the country's "strength and pride" before promising several measures intended to ease pressure on producers, including increased controls on foreign imports.
"The goal is clear: guaranteeing fair competition, especially so that regulations that are being applied to [French] farmers are also respected by foreign products," he said.
According to Department of Trade data, Australia's biggest agriculture export to France in 2022 was $674 million worth of oil seed and oleaginous fruits.
Mr Attal also flagged emergency financial packages and pushing to extend exemptions on European Union fallow land rules.
The European Commission temporarily lifted the rules that force farmers to dedicate four per cent of their land to nature recovery at the beginning of the Ukraine war to offset supply issues.
That hiatus finished at the end of 2023 and the commission was scheduled to decide later this week whether to further extend the exemption.
Meanwhile, the farmers syndicate, or union, Algemeen Boerensyndicaat has called on members to join protests planned to coincide with a meeting of EU leaders in Belgium this week.
"The farmers are desperate, really desperate. We've warned the government for years that this would happen," ABS policy officer Mark Wulfrancke said.
"We want respect from our government, the European government. The only way to show that respect is to make a policy that is farmer friendly, food friendly. We need a correct price."
Rural and agriculture issues have dogged European lawmakers for several years and are predicted to feature heavily in EU elections due to kick-off later this year.
Local farmers have also staged protests recently in Germany, Romania and Spain while French farmers also protested last year against pesticide bans.
However, the biggest impact has been in the Netherlands where the Farmer-citizen movement, formed in 2019 to fight plans to reduce nitrogen emissions and livestock numbers, won a slew of Senate seats in the 2023 national elections.
France is the EU's biggest and most powerful agricultural producer and a Parisian pushback was blamed for unravelling EU-Australia free trade agreement negotiations last October.
Meanwhile, Australia's 85,000 farmers await the federal government to finalise a range of environmental protection and emissions reductions policies.
These include the agriculture and land sectoral plan, carbon offsets and an expanded Capacity Investment Scheme.
The National Farmers Federation underlined local concerns last October in launching a campaign against government policies it believes could wipe billions from Australia's farm production.
The NFF were particularly concerned about the impact of Murray Darling Basin water buybacks, transmission projects under the government's Rewiring the Nation clean energy package and reform of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act on productive land use.
