Brussels to provide €500 million to support farmers in the face of rising fertiliser prices

“To support farms that have been hit hard by rising fertiliser costs, we need to guarantee reliable funding, moving away from the logic of sensationalist announcements and without diverting resources from funds already earmarked for the sector,” said Coldiretti’s national secretary, Vincenzo Gesmundo. According to Coldiretti, “it is important that declarations of intent are followed by action, all the more so given the total refusal so far shown by President von der Leyen to scrap CBAM and ETS, the only real structural measure capable of providing a genuine response to the difficulties faced by farmers, as Coldiretti has highlighted on numerous occasions”.

“Today’s announcement,” commented Cristiano Fini, president of Cia Agricoltori italiani, “is positive and moves in the direction set out in the fertiliser plan, but it cannot remain a one-off measure. We call for action to be taken on the revision of the ETS and for the CBAM on fertilisers to be suspended immediately, and temporarily eliminate tariffs and anti-dumping measures that further exacerbate the situation, and ensure full price transparency to stop speculation and bring costs back to sustainable levels for farms.”

“The EU Commission’s proposal,” added Copagri President Tommaso Battista – is a step towards providing relief to the thousands of producers caught in the grip of rising production costs, although it may not be enough to offset the effects of the severe tensions currently unfolding in the Middle East. Fertiliser prices, which rose by 60% by the end of 2025 and then increased a further 40% in April 2026, constitute a significant item in farm accounts, accounting for as much as a third of total production costs.”

“This is a concrete response,” added Raffaele Drei, president of Confcooperative Agrioalimentare, “to an emergency affecting thousands of farms and cooperatives, with knock-on effects throughout the agri-food supply chain and inevitable repercussions for consumers as well. It is an important sign of attention towards a sector that continues to face heavy pressure on production costs, called upon to guarantee food security, the sustainability of production and the competitiveness of European agri-food supply chains. What is needed now is a long-term European strategy which, in addition to addressing the structural causes of rising fertiliser costs, aims to strengthen the European Union’s production autonomy.”