News about Germany

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Why are German farmers so angry?

Tractors rumbling down the streets of the capital and jamming highway interchanges — scenes that are more familiar in neighboring France. But Germany’s farmers have been flexing their muscles again over the last few weeks.

Protesters began taking to the streets in late December after the center-left government announced it was planning to end diesel subsidies and agricultural vehicle tax exemptions.

Following the farmers’ outcry, Berlin says it will phase out the fuel subsidies within two years and will retain the tax breaks for tractors. Yet this partial climbdown has not satisfied protesters.

So how is Germany’s agricultural sector faring?

Rising food prices have benefited German farmers recently. According to the German farmers’ association, the DBV, the average full-time farm made €115,000 ($125,000) of profit in 2022/23, a 45% rise within just two years.

Farming is an arduous and round-the-clock occupation. In its report, the DBV points out that earnings are not especially high compared to butcher’s stores or bakeries.

On top of that, farms often employ other unsalaried family members. However, even when they are factored in, average profits still appear healthy in comparison with the average wage in Germany.

State diesel subsidies save a full-time farm several thousand euros annually — just a small fraction of those profits.

Farmers block roads across Germany

How important is German agriculture?

Agriculture is not the first thing that springs to mind when you think of industrial powerhouse Germany. Farming only generates just under 1% of the country’s GDP — less than in France, to the west, and Poland, to the east.

The country is, however, the EU market leader when it comes to milk, pork and potatoes. And over the last decade, Germany has upped its market share of many other types of produce.

But farming is about far more than economics. Joachim Rukwied, the head of the German farmers’ association, argues that not only the future of farming families is now on the line, but the future of the country and its food security.

Why have planned cuts unleashed such a backlash?
The protests are “about much more than agricultural diesel and vehicle tax breaks,” according to Karsten Hansen of the German Dairy Farmers Association (BDM). The announcement of the cuts in subsidies was just the straw that broke the camel’s back, he says.

While German agriculture seems to be flourishing on the face of it, the picture is more nuanced on closer inspection. Profits range widely according to the type of agricultural business, the region or the size of the farm.

For over a decade now, the number of farms in Germany has been decreasing at a rate of over 1% a year. Most of them are small farms. The number of big farms is growing.

As the German government seeks to plug a €17 billion ($18.6 billion) hole in its 2024 budget, many farmers feel they are being expected to shoulder a disproportionate burden.

The German farmers’ association is adamant that the government should roll back its plans to remove all diesel subsidies by 2026. Talking on the sidelines of a meeting of Germany’s center-right Christian Social Union in Bavaria, DBV head, Joachim Rukwied, said it would otherwise mean a slow death for German agriculture.

Norbert Lins, a member of the European Parliament for the center-right bloc, told DW that the phasing out of agricultural fuel subsidies is an attack on the farmers’ competitiveness. But the picture here, too, is complex.

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