Kostas Karamanlis warns of crisis in Greek agriculture

Former prime minister Kostas Karamanlis, speaking at the 75th anniversary of the Central Cooperative Union of Grape Products, described the primary sector in Greece and Europe as facing an “extremely difficult, almost unbearable reality”. He linked the hardships to the Covid‑19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine and EU energy‑transition policies that have pushed production costs higher while producer prices and farm incomes fell.

Karamanlis highlighted additional pressures: extensive damage to infrastructure, crops and livestock from natural disasters and disease, delays in compensation payments, and what he called “opaque, sometimes scandalous and client‑based” management of EU community subsidies. He cited structural weaknesses such as fragmented small farms, an aging farmer population, low training levels and rising input costs. To restore viability, he called for a comprehensive, fully funded support plan, low‑interest loans for young farmers without strict guarantees, the use of about 6 million hectares of unused land and greater investment in training and scientific assistance.