The farmers of Cyprus are sending out a warning signal

 

Statement by Giannakis Gavriil, AKEL MP and Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Agriculture

8 February 2024, AKEL C.C. Press Office, Nicosia

The militant farmer’s mobilisations across the EU are not a bolt from the blue. They are the natural consequence of the policies being pursued by the European Union which unilaterally impose the cost of the green transition on farmers and have brought people involved in agriculture to the brink of destruction.

Within the context of the Parliamentary Committee on Agriculture, we expressed strong concerns in good time that the EU’s new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) as it is being promoted is imposing unbearable costs on the primary sector and will threaten its viability.

The problems caused by the new CAP to the people working in agriculture have been compounded in recent years by the huge increases in production costs, which have literally brought farmers to their knees.

The cost of oil, electricity, fertilisers and pesticides has skyrocketed, while farmers are exploited by middlemen and oligopolies, receiving humiliating prices for production costs.

Already since mid-2021, at the level of the Parliamentary Committee on Agriculture, we have been constantly and urgently pressing the government for the need to take horizontal measures to reduce production costs.

Unfortunately, despite the verbal recognition, both by the current and the previous government, of the suffocating problems of famers, the measures taken so far are fragmentary and do not solve the problems.

We will bring the matter back before the Parliamentary Committee on Agriculture, expecting the government to take substantial measures to support the primary sector.

08.2.2024