The Spanish government is meeting transport associations in a fresh attempt to end an enduring lorry strike over high fuel prices that has disrupted restaurant menus and led to food shortages in supermarkets.
The action, which began last week, comes as surging energy costs are exacerbated by Russian’s invasion of Ukraine and consumer prices rise to their highest level in more than three decades.
Drivers and lorry owners belonging to the Platform for the Defence of Transport have been blocking roads and ports, and conducting noisy go-slow protests to draw attention to their demands.
Spain’s transport minister, Raquel Sánchez, said the government was addressing the problem and would seek “a clear and concrete solution” in Thursday’s meeting.
Transport associations rejected the €500m (£417m) aid package the government offered on Monday, and the effects of the strike are already being felt by the food industry and consumers.
Hostelería España, an association representing more than 315,000 bars and restaurants across Spain, said its members were experiencing differing levels of shortages.
“It varies from neighbourhood to neighbourhood and region to region, but we’re seeing supply problems when it comes to fresh fish and vegetables such as tomatoes and lettuce,” the association’s president, José Luis Yzuel Sanz, said.
“In some regions, people are having to do a lot of juggling to put together their menú del día because a lot of the products just aren’t getting to them.
“We hope it’s a temporary problem that will be over soon. If it doesn’t get fixed, it’s going to be very serious.”
The Spanish Federation of Food and Drink Industries said supply chains were “under more strain than in this worst moments of the [Covid] pandemic”, adding that many production centres had shut down and others would soon follow suit.
The multi-national food company Danone said on Tuesday that it could be forced to cease production and halt distribution, and the pasta firm Gallo has said the strike and the attendant difficulties in getting stock out of warehouses may oblige it to bring “a temporary halt to production activity”.
The AECOC, one of Spain’s largest manufacturing and distribution associations, has said the situation could result in the need for furlough schemes.
“As the strike stretches on, it’s clear that there will be no choice but to use this tool,” the head of the AECOC, Jose María Bonmati, told a press conference on Wednesday.
