Written by Dimitrios Michaelides
Mr. Manos Constantidelis (President of the Lesvos Midland Cooperative) published (21/7/2026) an analysis of ELSTAT data showing an almost doubling of imports of agricultural products and food between 2020 and 2025. Tragic! …
Regarding imports of live animals and meat products, they increased from €1.132 million to €2.162 million annually!. In dairy products, they went from €819 million in 2020 to €1.569 million in 2025!. Animal feed went from €548 million to €792 million in 2025!. That is, imports from €2.499 million in 2020 reached €4.523 million in 2025. TRAGIC development.
DIANEOSIS reported in Sep 2024 that the total value of Greek agricultural production was almost €12,9 billion in 2023, down 3% compared to 2022. However, the real value was drastically reduced, by 16,1%, compared to 2022. At CONSTANT "2015 prices" the total value of agricultural production was €11.1 billion in 2020, €10,6 billion in 2022 and €8,9 billion in 2023, continuously decreasing.
ELSTAT reports that in 2020 the equivalent of 394.800 full-time employees were employed in the agricultural sector, in 2023 it was 461.400 people (11% of employment in Greece), in 2024 it was 450.000 people (businessnews, 27/4/2026) and in 2025 another 66.800 jobs were lost. Employment in agriculture, forestry and fishing in Greece is projected to decrease by 50% by 2035. Cedefop-European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training. Eleftheria, 17/6/2026.
The stable sustainable pyramid of the age distribution of those employed in any sector should be 20-35 years old 40%, 35-50 years old 30%, 50-65 years old 20% and those over 65 years old the remaining 10%. Unfortunately, the current unbalanced, unsustainable age distribution shows that those under 40 years old are only 7-8% and those over 55 years old 65,66% (ELSTAT)
An emotional (!) personal record shows that in 1970, from an agricultural product-food on the grocery store shelf, 70% went to the farmer-producer, 20% to processing-distribution and 10% to the grocer. In 2010, for the same agricultural product-food, only 10% reaches the farmer-producer, 30% goes to processing-distribution and 60% earns (!) in the supermarket...
Perhaps the only way out of the dramatic decline in rural income is the massive entry of farmer-producers, through cottage industries, into processing and the exit of farmer-producers to consumers through Farmers Markets. For commercial operations, farmers must achieve scale through cooperatives.
It is possible that the data reported are not sufficiently correct, since only what is invoiced is recorded and is recorded in the way that the bourgeois technocrats “imagined” and organized. Unfortunately, the arrogant technocrats of the Public Administration discredit the participation with an opinion, or even with an “agreement”, of those ultimately acting in the agricultural field, namely the farmers and the farmers’ organizations. And there are always cases of conscious “falsification” of the terms mentioned above, such as:
For example, in anthropocentric statistics, the age periods are usually 20-35 years, 35-50 years, 50-65 years & over 65 years. However, the European Commission defines Young Farmers as 18-40 years. And in Greece, until recently, the president of the Panhellenic Union of Young Farmers was over 50 years old (without elections and replacements, since it has members up to 40 years old by statute!!!). Falsification can be done by changing the ages.
For example, the definition of a farmer was greatly distorted by including as farmers those who had photovoltaic systems up to 100KW and guesthouses with up to 10 rooms.
For example, while "agritourism" is hospitality services offered by professional farmers, and while the identical services offered freely by any professional are called "Rural Tourism", in Greece associations of professionals unrelated to farmers were organized who steal the term "Agritourism", seize the resources intended for farmers and are treated favorably, as farmers!!!
For example, while a “professional farmer” must have 51% of their income from agricultural activities (and 35% of their employment), almost everyone who has some small income from the agricultural sector can be classified as a “professional farmer” simply by removing all forms of non-agricultural income from the equation. This was recently done by a Joint Ministerial Decision (JMD 131698/FEKB-3212/5-6-2026) of the Ministries of National Economy & Finance and Rural Development & Food … state FRAUD …
E.g. The definition of "active farmer" in the EU has become a joke and a constant "obscene" insult to the meaning of words and our intelligence. An active farmer is defined by the EU as any natural or legal person who carries out agricultural activity and receives direct payments either below €5.000 or whose agricultural income is at least 10% of his total income. There are many possibilities for falsification ...
ELSTAT reports that there are 8,3 million sheep and goats in Greece in 2025, while AADE-OPEKEPE (or whatever they call the structure) "paid" for 17,5 million sheep and goats in subsidies, removing viability opportunities from real livestock farmers.
It seems that studies based on this form of numerical data (Greek statistics) are essentially "negligible" and lead to wrong strategic choices.
If they are not confirmed by the institutional participation of representatives of all farmers elected through proper procedures, they are in danger beyond incorrect, is impossible, and they have all the conditions to be dangerous and disastrous both for the agricultural sector and for the homeland, but mainly for the natural environment of all of us, on planet earth...
The countdown to the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP 2028-2034) has begun in Brussels, where the European Commission, the Council of Agriculture Ministers and the European Parliament are called upon to agree on one of the most important reforms of recent decades. At stake is not only the level of subsidies that European farmers will receive after 2027, but also whether the CAP will remain a truly common European policy or evolve into a more decentralized system, where each member state will shape its own strategy.
In the CAP 2021-2027, environmental organizations destroyed the CARETAKERS of the environment, who understood this in the fall of 2025 with the agricultural mobilizations across the EU. In Greece, even then, farmers were completely disenfranchised and were requesting almost exclusively subsidies, without perspective and without a future.
Today, information about the CAP is non-existent and of course the organized participation of farmers is also non-existent. The executive branch acts arrogantly, alone, authoritarianly, with technocrats, consultants and academics, however, without the active and decisive participation of the organized Greek farmers themselves.
Ms. Magda Kontogianni, a livestock farmer, from the Livestock Association of the Attica Region, points out that in addition to the urgent matters, the three most important issues of the rural world must be (1) the stable land uses for food production, the (2) Rural Apprenticeship Schools and (3) the AGRICULTURAL CHAMBERS.
The absence of farmers is ensured by the political parties, which keep farmers divided, and the government, which does not support in every possible way agricultural trade unionism and agricultural entrepreneurship with an AGRICULTURAL CHAMBER.
And when we "wake up" we will not have food self-sufficiency, we will depend on food imports and we will have lost approximately 20% (3,6x5) of GDP, which corresponds to the impact of the agricultural sector on the Greek GDP. TRAGIC.
photo dentist, https://pixabay.com
