Greek farmers held hostage to European rules and cartels

ALASTAIR JAMES MUIR

A visiting Greek professor at the University of Saskatchewan offered the Farming for Profit Conference in Moose Jaw a glimpse into agriculture in his home country. When Konstantinos Karantininis left his village in northern Greece 40 years ago, the 3.7 acre family farm had sustained generations. The farm grew peaches and a pig barn had 130 hogs. “Now it won’t sustain anything,” he said. “I had to give someone free rent to make sure the house is kept in condition.”

Since the 2008 financial crisis, the number of Greek farmers has fallen from 750,000 to 500,000. Agriculture remains important to the economy, even though Russian fruit and vegetable markets declined from Russian trade policy, he said.

While the economy has shrunk by one-third and is like a “war zone”, agriculture has been stable, with input price levels rising every year more than other prices. Subsidies from the European Union and the Greek gov- ernment have helped stabilize farming.

In Greek politics, the agriculture minister’s portfolio is lowest on the cabinet rung. Nobody aspires to be agriculture minister, he said.

The average length of tenure for a Greek agriculture minister, over the last 10 years, is just under 16 months. Every year, when all European Union agriculture ministers meet to negotiate subsidies, the Greek minister’s inexperience costs Greek farmers, said Karantininis. Greek governments are penalized for subsidies that don’t meet EU standards and rules

Meanwhile, increased costs of fertilizers and chemicals are maintained by a cartel of three suppliers.

“They look at the EU subsidy, take half and split it in three shares.” Competition laws can’t change that.

Ron Walter can be reached at ronjoy@sasktel.net