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German farmers’ anger overshadows agriculture fair

Chickens strut and cluck, piglets play under heat lamps, a huge bull is led by a nose ring into a box lined with fresh straw. At Berlin’s Green Week in, the world’s largest agricultural and food trade fair, farmers want to show their best side.

But at this year’s fair, the mood is not entirely positive. The memory of a weeklong protest that saw tens of thousands of angry farmers block roads with tractors across Germany are too fresh. That protest was spurred primarily by a government proposal to abolish tax rebates for diesel fuel used in agriculture.

“I can’t remember farmers expressing their displeasure with politicians like this since the fall of the Berlin Wall,” said Joachim Rukwied, President of the German Farmers’ Association, summing up the mood at the start of Green Week.

German farmers are feeling the squeeze

Germans love cheap food
The diesel subsidy cuts may have triggered the recent protests, but the problem runs deeper. Industry-wide, agriculture is highly subsidized, and has not been able to support itself for many years. On many farms, almost half of farmers’ income comes from subsidies, primarily from the European Union. That creates a lot of frustration.

Compared to the rest of Europe, Germans spend very little on food. According to the Federal Agriculture and Food Agency, in 2022 Germans spent an average of 11.5% of their income on food purchases. Only in Ireland, Luxembourg and Austria do people spend less. In comparison, Italians pay 14.4% and the French 13.3% of their income on food.

Discount supermarkets dictate prices
One reason for the low prices in supermarkets is the power of retail groups. Smaller suppliers have disappeared in recent years, while discount food outlets have grown bigger. Edeka, Rewe, Lidl and Aldi dominate the German supermarket sector, dictating prices to food producers. Those who can’t deliver cheaply disappear from the retailers’ shelves.

At the bottom of the supply chain are farmers, who are often paid less than it costs to actually produce the milk, meat, grain and vegetables. At the same time, legal requirements for animal welfare, to combat climate change and for species protection have grown considerably in recent years.

“Agriculture cannot meet all those requirements and produce the cheapest food at the same time. There is a gap that needs to be closed,” says Martin Schulz, Chairman of the German Farmers’ Association.

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