Greek tobacco growers protest against EU subsidy cuts

(ATHENS) - Around 1,500 Greek tobacco growers marched in Athens on Thursday in an opening protest against European Union subsidy cuts scheduled to kick off similar action around the continent.

The tobacco growers are opposed to a gradual reduction of EU subsidies that the bloc decided in a 2004 reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).

"The money belongs to those who watered the fields with their sweat for years," read a banner carried by the protesters who marched on the Greek parliament and blocked the city centre for hours.

"We demand a return to a 100-percent subsidy scheme for our produce," George Doubliotis, a senior member of the Greek tobacco growers federation told AFP.

The EU tobacco subsidy cuts began in 2006 and are to peak in 2013.

Once a staple product of Greek agriculture and an important item of export, tobacco is today mainly grown in the poorer northern parts of the country, usually on small family-owned plots.

The leaf is often a key source of income for Greece's Muslim minorities of Turkish and Pomak origin.

Though Greeks are among Europe's heaviest smokers, tobacco production in the country has fallen by 80 percent since 2006 and the number of growers has shrunk from around 50,000 to 15,000 according to the International Union of Tobacco Planters (Unitab).

The protest came a day before a visit by European Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel.

Similar demonstrations on the subsidy will be held around the continent in coming weeks, Unitab said on Thursday.