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In Uruguay a combination of
privatisation, foreign investment and high
interest rates is destroying small, family-run
farms and ruining the lives of agricultural
workers. Uruguayan farmers are finding it
impossible to compete with cheap, often
subsidized imports - such as Spanish onions,
Chinese garlic and Greek processed peaches -
and deal with interest rates of between 30% and
100%. Small quinteros cannot earn enough to
repay loans taken out to buy new technology and
are increasingly losing their land to large,
mechanised farms.
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Foreign companies now
permitted to buy land in Uruguay are planting
great tracts of eucalyptus, rice and oranges
and hiring the cheapest possible labour.
Colacho Estévez, rural worker and historical
leader of the Union of Sugar Workers describes
the situation: "In these plantations the
workers are carrying out their work in
deplorable conditions. Wages are low, workers
are not insured against accidents and they
don’t even have a decent place to sleep, wash
and cook. They are living below the poverty
line, which means they suffer bad health, bad
education, bad food and bad housing."
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