En mirror of France, a vast rebellious movement has been unfolding in Germany since January 8: if the ingredients are almost identical from one country to another, it is nevertheless a completely unprecedented phenomenon due to its scale , in a country where agriculture plays an important role. The initial spark was the decision of the ruling coalition, motivated by budgetary reasons, to repeal tax advantages on diesel in force since 1951; faced with the conflagration in the agricultural world, it went backwards, renouncing the tax on agricultural vehicles and proposing a gradual reduction in the rebate on non-road diesel by 2026. Without succeeding in alleviating the anger . The reduction in this tax advantage (around 900 million euros per year) appears unfair in the eyes of farmers, who have few electric alternatives to diesel tractors.
Above all, battered by climate change, rising energy prices and ecological regulations, German farmers want to make known their dismay at the uncertain future of their profession, to say the least, affected by the same ills as their French colleagues.
First of all, the low salaries, at the mercy of mass distribution. The low-cost brands Aldi, Lidl, Rewe and Edeka share 85% of the food trade across the Rhine. Despite antitrust laws and the supervision of the Federal Cartel Office, cost prices are often derisory: that of milk (30 to 40 cents per liter) has barely changed in forty years. The SPD demands that distributor margins be passed on more to farms, often at the limit of profitability. But the German consumer, hit hard by the inflation of food products (more than 25% since 2021), turns out to be more sensitive to their wallet than to fair remuneration for farmers.
Structural changes
Then, the sector’s heavy dependence on subsidies (more than 9 billion per year). On average, 45% of agricultural income is covered by this aid, according to the federal government’s report on agricultural policy for 2023. Although the majority of this funding is provided by the European Union, their payment remains linked to the size of the areas exploited (from 200 to 300 euros per hectare), to the nature of the operations (organic, conventional) and to compliance with environmental requirements. . In fact, large farms are favored, while small farms, especially in the South and West, dominate.
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