Greek Farmers Block Roads Over Delayed Subsidies and Low Olive Oil Prices

Summary

Farmers across Greece are protest­ing high costs, low prices, and delayed sub­si­dies by block­ing motor­ways and key roads, caus­ing long queues of trucks at cus­toms sta­tions. The protests, fueled by anger over the Opekepe sub­sidy scan­dal, have led to clashes with police and are cost­ing the econ­omy mil­lions of euros each day.

From Crete in the south­ern Aegean to the north­ern Evros region, motor­ways and key arte­r­ial roads across Greece have been blocked by farm­ers, live­stock breed­ers, bee­keep­ers and fish­er­men protest­ing high costs, low pro­ducer prices and delayed sub­sidy pay­ments.

Columns of trac­tors have also cut off cus­toms sta­tions on the bor­ders with Bulgaria and Turkey, cre­at­ing long queues of trucks car­ry­ing goods wait­ing to enter the coun­try.

In Heraklion, Crete, clashes broke out between local farm­ers gath­ered at the city’s air­port and police forces attempt­ing to remove them from the premises.

Among the farm­ers’ demands are full com­pen­sa­tion for crops destroyed by extreme weather, access to tax-free diesel, and a fixed, low energy price.

Their pri­mary demand, how­ever, is the release of European Union-backed sub­sidy pay­ments that have been delayed for nearly two months.

“We want solu­tions,” protest­ing farm­ers in Larisa said. ​“We are here to solve our prob­lems and keep the Greek coun­try­side alive.”

Farmers in north­ern Greece, includ­ing pro­duc­ers of Chalkidiki table olives, said advance pay­ments they received were 35 to 40 per­cent lower than expected.

In Thiva, cen­tral Greece, olive oil pro­duc­ers from Pelion rein­forced a road­block with 50 trac­tors and pickup trucks to protest per­sis­tently low olive oil prices.

“A kilo­gram of extra vir­gin olive oil sells for €3.50 here, while pro­ducer prices have reached €8 in Albania and €9 in Italy,” the farm­ers said.

According to European Commission data, pro­ducer prices of extra vir­gin olive oil in early December slightly exceeded €4.50 per kilo­gram in Greece’s main pro­duc­ing regions, includ­ing Chania, Messenia and Laconia.

By com­par­i­son, Italian pro­duc­ers received around €7.50 per kilo­gram dur­ing the same period, while prices in Spain remained below €5.00 per kilo­gram.

The protests are also fueled by anger over the Opekepe sub­sidy scan­dal, in which mil­lions of euros in agri­cul­tural funds were allegedly paid to non-eli­gi­ble recip­i­ents.

“The real farm­ers will get all the money they are enti­tled to,” said Vice President of the Greek gov­ern­ment Kostis Hadzidakis.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said that prob­lems ​“are solved through dia­logue” and urged farm­ers to engage in a ​“ratio­nal dis­cus­sion” with the gov­ern­ment.

The farm­ers’ coor­di­nat­ing body rejected an invi­ta­tion to meet Mitsotakis at the Maximou Building in Athens, instead demand­ing firm guar­an­tees on sub­sidy pay­ments. They warned block­ades would con­tinue through the Christmas period.

The protests are tak­ing a toll on the econ­omy. Estimates from the Piraeus Chamber of Commerce sug­gest each day of mobi­liza­tion costs between €31 mil­lion and €45 mil­lion across all sec­tors.

While delayed sub­si­dies and the Opekepe scan­dal sparked the demon­stra­tions, farm­ers say deeper struc­tural prob­lems are at the root of the unrest.

Low pro­ducer prices and ris­ing costs for fuel, fer­til­iz­ers, pes­ti­cides and energy have cre­ated an increas­ingly hos­tile envi­ron­ment for farm­ing.

Demographic chal­lenges fur­ther com­pli­cate the out­look. About 65 per­cent of Greek farm­ers are over 55, with roughly 40 per­cent aged 65.

Estimates indi­cate the sec­tor loses 0.3 per­cent of its capac­ity each year, and experts say around 200,000 young farm­ers will be needed in the com­ing years to keep Greek agri­cul­ture com­pet­i­tive.