Spanish farmers demand urgent aid as war in Iran drives up costs

Spain's farming sector on Tuesday piled all the pressure on the government. The leaders of Asaja, COAG, UPA, Unión de Uniones and Cooperativas Agroalimentarias sat down with the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Luis Planas, to demand "immediate" direct aid to help the sector survive the surge in production costs unleashed by the war in Iran, a conflict which, they warn, puts the country's food sovereignty at risk. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT The meeting comes after Asaja, COAG and UPA announced on Friday that they will take to the streets if the government fails to act on what they describe as a "critical" situation in the countryside. The encounter also comes at a sensitive moment: the executive is weighing whether to extend beyond 30 September the economic support currently shoring up several productive sectors. Before going into the meeting, the president of Asaja, Pedro Barato, called for "sufficient" measures to offset the almost 50% increase in the price of agricultural diesel since the conflict erupted. If they fail to materialise, he warned, up to 40% of crops, mainly arable, could be left unsown, leading to a fresh surge in prices for consumers. Barato also lamented that the aid promised to offset fertiliser costs has so far reached only half of the farmers initially targeted. "Compensation is essential if agriculture is to survive. Either they compensate us or, as far as Asaja is concerned, the protests will continue," he concluded. Each organisation with its own demands The secretary general of COAG, Andrés Góngora, went further: he said that thousands of hectares risk being left unsown unless "a robust, reliable package of measures" is agreed, and called for up to 70% of the diesel price hike to be offset, the margin allowed by the European Union, as well as additional aid for fertilisers and agricultural plastics. From UPA, its secretary general, Cristóbal Cano, described the meeting as a "direct consequence" of the announcement of protests and branded the situation of agricultural diesel as "unsustainable". He was the only one to put forward a concrete way of financing the support: a special tax on the profits of Spain's major oil companies, whose practices, he said, should be investigated, to feed a compensation fund for the farming sector. The coordinator of Unión de Uniones, Luis Cortés, pointed to a structural problem: the countryside cannot pass rising costs on to the final price of its products because, he complained, the Food Chain Law is not being enforced. That is why he called for deep, structural measures, such as a professional diesel rate, instead of "sticking plasters"; otherwise, he warned, he will back the nationwide protests already called in several autonomous communities. Cooperativas Agroalimentarias completed the united front. Its president, Ángel Villafranca, noted that a large share of the costs borne by farms and cooperatives – transport, energy – "are beyond their control", and called for compensation that would cover this increase. If not, he warned, harvesting will become more expensive and that extra cost will eventually be passed on to the shopping basket, something for which the sector "is not responsible". Until now, he acknowledged, farms themselves and the cooperative industry have been absorbing much of the increase. The meeting with the farming organisations comes a day after Planas, together with the deputy prime minister and finance minister, Carlos Cuerpo, met representatives of the food industry, cereal traders and fertiliser manufacturers to analyse how input costs are evolving. After that encounter, the government signalled its willingness to support the sector "beyond the response plan" already activated to deal with the impact of the war. The timing is crucial: the surge in diesel prices coincides with the grape harvest and the start of the olive and winter cereal campaigns, while at sea the more than 85% increase in fuel costs has already forced vessels to tie up in several ports. A crisis being fought far beyond Spain's fields What Spanish farmers are demanding is the local expression of a tension that has been gripping the planet for months. The war broke out on 28 February, when the United States and Israel attacked Iran and Tehran responded with missiles against Israeli and US bases, triggering a military escalation that threatens nearly a fifth of the world's oil that moves around the globe through the Strait of Hormuz. Since then, oil prices have gone through weeks of sharp volatility: before the start of the offensive a barrel was trading below 70 dollars (61 euros) and shortly afterwards it almost reached 120 (104 euros), before later stabilising at around 90 (79 euros). This rise has also driven up prices for nitrogen fertilisers – urea, ammonia – by as much as 50% in some markets, as most of these products are made from oil and gas derivatives.