San Francisco Frontiers - Arrests as French farmers close in on Paris

France has been at the centre of growing rural discontent across Europe, with protests also held in Germany, Poland, Romania, Belgium and Italy. Spanish farmers have said they will join the movement.

After days calling for higher incomes, less red tape and protection from foreign competition, "there are huge expectations" among farmers, said Arnaud Rousseau, head of France's largest agricultural union the FNSEA.

But he added that not all of the demands could be immediately answered "so I'm trying to call for calm and reasonableness".

Eighteen people trying to blockade the Rungis wholesale food market south of Paris, a key food distribution hub for the capital region's 12 million people, were arrested for "interfering with traffic", police said.

Prosecutors in Creteil, southeast of Paris, said 15 of those arrested were in custody.

Between 200 and 300 tractors in a convoy that set off from southwest France were kept away from the market by police.

Units with armoured vehicles deployed along the A6 motorway leading to Rungis and police checkpoints were set up around the market.

The government has warned farmers to stay away from Rungis, Paris airports and large cities. Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin who has ordered police to tread lightly but warned that they were ready to defend strategic spots.

A source close to Prime Minister Gabriel Attal's office said he had met leaders of the second and third-largest farmers' unions on Wednesday morning.

- Government concessions -

The government has scrambled to offer concessions, with Attal -- installed just this month -- telling parliament Tuesday that his government stood ready to resolve the crisis.

In an apparent reference to contested EU rules, he said: "France must be granted an exception for its agriculture."

The European Commission said it would offer temporary relief this year from contentious rules requiring some farmland to be left fallow, ahead of a visit to Brussels by French Agriculture Minister Marc Fesneau.

It will also set up measures to limit market disruption from Ukrainian products entering the EU, after tariffs were lifted in response to Russia's invasion.

France is also opposing a trade deal between the European Union and the South American Mercosur bloc -- a key grievance for protesters -- being signed in its current state.

Finance Minister Brunoo Le Maire said there would be closer surveillance of European food trading platforms to ensure that "farmers' income is not the first thing to be sacrificed in trade negotiations".

- 'Believe it when I see it' -

But farmers said the promises, including assurances of higher payouts under the EU's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), did not go far enough.

"Several of these measures will take three or four years to be implemented," said Johanna Trau, a grain and cattle farmer from Ebersheim in Alsace, eastern France. "I'll believe it when I see it."

France is the biggest beneficiary of EU farm subsidies, receiving more than nine billion euros ($9.8 billion) each year.

Once the bloc's biggest agricultural exporter, it is now third behind the Netherlands and Germany.

Darmanin said there were 10,000 protesting farmers on French roads Wednesday, blocking 100 spots along major roads.

In addition to moving on Paris, convoys were also attempting to encircle Lyon, France's third-biggest city.

In Toulouse in the southwest, protesting farmers tried to blockade the local wholesale food market, but were removed by police.

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U.Campbell--SFF