Portuguese farmers' union demands €140M emergency package to recover competitiveness
Portugal's main farming confederation has unanimously demanded €140 million in emergency aid to compensate for soaring production costs and declining competitiveness against Spain. The Confederation of Farmers of Portugal (Confederação dos Agricultores de Portugal, or CAP) approved the demand at an extraordinary meeting of its Presidents' Council in Lisboa, citing what it called inadequate government support for fuel and fertilizers.
Why farmers say existing support falls short
The government has allocated €20 million for fertilizers and other production inputs, plus fuel subsidies that CAP considers insufficient. The union, led by Álvaro Mendonça e Moura, argues that patchwork measures cannot replace a response proportionate to the crisis.
Portuguese farmers face a structural disadvantage against their Spanish counterparts. According to CAP, Spain has mobilized €1.1 billion in agricultural support, far exceeding Portuguese allocations. This disparity creates an uneven playing field within the same single market.
The confederation warns that without intervention, Portuguese production will be replaced by imports, worsening the country's food dependency. Portugal already runs a significant trade deficit in agricultural goods — imports exceeded €9.2 billion in 2024 — and has self-sufficiency rates below 20% for cereals.
Brussels mechanisms remain underused
CAP points out that the European Commission has activated two crisis mechanisms: a crisis reserve and the possibility to reprogram the Common Agricultural Policy (Política Agrícola Comum, the EU's farming subsidy framework) at national level, allowing member states to add national funding up to 200% of the EU allocation.
The union calls it unacceptable that the government has not fully used this possibility while farmers accumulate losses. Bruxelas recognized the exceptional gravity of the situation, but Lisbon's response remains below what is needed.
Cereal producers have joined the demand, warning that the national cereal sector's continuity is at risk from high fuel and fertilizer costs combined with low market prices. The beekeeping sector must also be included, CAP stressed.
What happens next
The confederation will hand-deliver its demands to parliament and to the Prime Minister's official residence at São Bento on 12 October. CAP warned that protest action becomes inevitable without a restoration of minimum competitiveness conditions.
The €140 million requested would compensate for increased production costs and protect national production, the union argues. CAP distinguishes these emergency supports from both climate disaster aid — which has affected several sectors — and regular CAP payments, which serve different purposes and cannot compensate for this competitiveness gap.
