Two weeks after farmers’ protests in France forced the European Commission to rethink its climate terms, tractor demonstrations have lately shaken Spain and Greece.

On February 21, 2024, Madrid looked like a ploughing field as hundreds of farmers drove tractors to the capital.

The participants are agitating for the lowering of the cost of farm inputs such as fertilizer and better farm-gate prices.

In Greece, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis ruled out any concessions a day before a February 21 tractor march.

He said that farmers need to appreciate the fact that the government has nothing to concede to them for now. A day earlier, growers were planning for a tractor rally in Athens to demand lower production expenses on their farms.

So far, the tractor protests in Greece have not brought down business activity, unlike Paris and Brussels. 

EU Policies Versus Low Produce Prices

On the other side of the scale are dipping producer prices, which have angered growers. According to the European Commission’s December 2023 agricultural prices index, the bloc’s durum wheat prices fell annually by 23.3%. This was even as world prices fell by 24.8%, year-on-year. 

However, between November and December 2023, wheat prices fell in Europe by 2.6%, to settle at EUR 266 per tonne. World prices of wheat, meanwhile, appreciated by 3.6% during the same period.

Only poultry, pork and white sugar prices saw a positive annual change due to supply gaps in each sector.

Farmers are looking at the low prices issue and counter-weighing it against EU policies on climate. The protesters demand a raise in farm subsidies to counter the additional climate expenditure.

The issue seems likely to influence the outcome of the EU parliamentary elections, which will happen between June 6 and 9.

There are already signs that things are looking up, given that the European Commission backed down on two measures. The first one was the removal of the clause to cut non-carbon dioxide emissions on farms by 30% by 2040. The second concession was halting the measure to halve pesticide use during the same period.

Tractor protests have previously affected EU members France, Poland, and Belgium, with Greece and Spain being latter-day entrants.