Luxembourg’s agricultural sector continues to grapple with rising production costs, particularly affecting energy and animal feed. In conversation with RTL, Christian Hahn, the president of the Agriculture Chamber, explained that dairy production in the Grand Duchy remains profitable for the moment, but that margins are close to negligible, making future investments challenging.
One of the consequences resulting from the current situation, according too Hahn, who works on a family-operated dairy farm with more than 100 cows and extensive cropping land, is that farmers rely more on the EU’s so-called eco-schemes, which allows them to gain subsidies by farming in ecological manner. The Chamber president explained that this might negatively affect yield, but that compensations can make up for those losses.
Nevertheless, Hahn also drew attention to the fact that there are significant delays in the benefit payments of the scheme, with some farmers already waiting for more than a year and therefore struggling with liquidity.
Hundreds of dairy farmers on Monday once again took to the streets of Brussels to protest for fair milk prices in the EU as the bloc’s agriculture ministers convened for a meeting on administrative simplification, European productivity, and protection from outside competition.
Speaking to RTL, Luxembourg’s Agriculture Minister Martine Hansen emphasised that she immediately sought to negotiate with farmers in the Grand Duchy as soon as the prospect of protests arose. She further noted that administrative simplification is a priority in future talks.
Authorities also intend to subject the supply chain to an extensive review process to determine “where the shortcomings are, who makes profits, and whether these margins are warranted”, according to Hansen. She concluded by saying that goals in the sector have to be realistic to ensure long-term competitiveness.
