Portugal’s farmers seek European response to fuel/ fertilizer crisis – Portugal Resident

The Confederation of Portuguese Farmers is demandeding a European response to the fuel and fertilizer crisis – while denouncing the government’s inaction, saying it puts domestic production at a disadvantage compared to direct competitors who are all being helped by their governments.

The confederation’s secretary-general, Luís Mira, who attended a European farmers demonstration in front of the parliament building in Strasbourg today, has called for urgent, concrete, and effective support measures for agriculture – warning that the current level of costs “severely threatens the economic viability of farms, undermines the competitiveness of European agriculture and puts citizens’ food security at risk.

“It is unacceptable that farmers are forced to compete on a clearly unequal footing within the European market due to the government’s lack of political will to support agriculture,” he said, stressing that “while other countries are protecting their production, their farmers and their rural economies, Portugal still lacks a response commensurate with the gravity of the situation.” 

In a statement, the confederation warns that without urgent and effective measures, the current crisis involving fertilizers, fuel, and energy will inevitably transform into a food crisis, with serious consequences for agricultural production, consumers, and European food sovereignty.

Present in Strasbourg to represent Portuguese farmers, the confederation says that the demonstration will hopefully send a clear signal to the this so-far-indolent government.

Portugal remains one of the EU countries with the fewest concrete support measures for farmers, which puts domestic production at a disadvantage compared to direct competitors like Spain, France and Italy, the confederation explains. These member states have rolled out support packages for agriculture, aimed at offsetting rising costs for fuel, fertilizers, and other production inputs.

In contrast (and very typically), Portuguese farmers continue to face successive announcements and repeated promises, but a total absence of concrete responses from a government that has the ability to mitigate the impact of the crisis on farm incomes, but just isn’t doing anything about it.

Copa-Cogeca (the strongest and largest interest group and lobby for farmers) and the main European agricultural organisation was behind today’s protest in Strasbourg, under the banner “Fertilizer and fuel crisis today, food crisis tomorrow”.

At a time when European farmers are facing soaring production costs – particularly the rise in fertilizer and fuel prices – the European agricultural sector is joining forces to demand support measures, including the suspension of the European tax on fertilizer imports.

Known as the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), this tariff applies to imported goods based on their carbon emissions, particularly fertilizers.

Source: LUSA/ CAP Facebook