BERLIN (dpa-AFX) – At the beginning of the Green Week in Berlin, the situation of farmers in Germany is extremely difficult from the perspective of the farmers’ association. “The price situation on the agricultural markets is disastrous at the moment,” said association president Joachim Rukwied before the start of the agricultural trade fair. The price of pork recently fell to 1.45 euros per kilogram and the price of grain was below the level of the early 1980s.
Potatoes and sugar are also under considerable price pressure and the wine industry is in the biggest crisis of recent decades. Rukwied demanded relief from politicians. “We finally need cost reductions across the entire industry,” emphasized the association president. There is a need for a reduction in administrative costs and industry-specific special solutions, for example when it comes to the minimum wage. In Germany this is twice as high as in other European countries based on certain cultivation sectors such as fruit in Spain or vegetables in Poland.
Food industry with increased sales
While farmers are under pressure, the food industry as a whole can look back on a good year in 2025. The industry’s sales were almost 242 billion euros last year, said the managing director of the Federal Association of the German Food Industry (BVE), Christoph Minhoff. That was almost 4 percent more than in the previous year.
In an industry survey conducted by the BVE, significantly more than half of the companies surveyed rated their current earnings situation as “satisfactory”, “good” or even “very good”. Nevertheless, from the members’ perspective, the location conditions in Germany have deteriorated in recent years, emphasized Minhoff.
The industry representatives want to convey these topics to the political visitors to the Green Week. The fair starts on Friday and lasts until January 25th. It is the first Green Week for Agriculture Minister Alois Rainer (CSU). Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) is expected next week. The organizers expect a total of around 325,000 visitors./maa/DP/jha