Demand Relief from Squeeze of Low Producer Prices, High Costs

By Argiris Malapanis

MESSINI, Greece, December 11, 2025 — “We grow food to enrich the merchants, big business, and government politicians and bureaucrats,” Kostantinos Douroumis said on December 9.

“I sell potatoes at 15-40 cents a kilo [2.2 lbs.], which doesn’t cover the cost of production,” the 73-year-old farmer explained. “But you buy them at prices 5-10 times higher at the supermarket. We farmers end up in debt up to our neck, and you in the city have a hard time paying for food that used to be affordable. Only the middlemen profit.”

Douroumis, president of the local agricultural association of 1,500, spoke to World-Outlook at a site next to the former train station where farmers park tractors. Farmers have used these tractors, pick-up trucks, and other equipment to blockade the entrance from this rural town in southern Greece, near Kalamata, to the Athens-Kalamata national highway.

The protests here are part of a nationwide revolt by farmers and livestock breeders that began November 30 — the largest such mobilizations in Greece in more than a decade. For two weeks, agricultural producers have been blockading highways, roads, border crossings, railway stations, and some ports and airports.

Fishermen have joined protest actions at harbors. Trade unions and student groups have organized solidarity rallies in Athens, the country’s capital.

Farmers are pressing for relief from the squeeze of low producer prices on the one hand and high costs of fuel, seeds, fertilizers, and equipment on the other.

They are demanding the immediate release of more than €600 million ($700 million) in European Union (EU) farm subsidies that have been frozen for months after a major scandal in which a small number of state employees and their accomplices pilfered millions of these funds, prompting an EU investigation.

Farmers are also demanding compensation for an ongoing and devastating goat and sheep pox outbreak that has led to a mass cull of herds over the last year. The government has not taken measures to minimize the epidemic’s spread, such as providing the necessary vaccines, or to adequately compensate the affected producers.

“About 600,000 animals have been slaughtered,” explained Stavroula Gargoula, 30, the vice president of the agricultural association in Messini. “In our area, in addition to the sheep pox, many animals have been infected with catarrhal fever, for which a vaccine exists but is not available in Greece. But because a vaccine exists outside Greece, there is no compensation. I know a breeder nearby who was just forced to slaughter 125 sheep. Zero compensation. How’s he going to survive? And the compensation provided to others for the pox is so small it doesn’t even cover the cost of replacing the animals, let alone everything the farmer spent to raise them.”

Under these conditions, young people are leaving rural areas in droves, Gargoula said. While she helps her father harvest olives or pick fruit, she noted, “I can’t make ends meet on the farm.” She now runs the coffee shop at Messini’s former train station to eke out a living.

Protests spread across the country

The mobilizations show no signs of winding down, as the government has refused to meet the farmers’ main demands.

“The prime minister pretends he doesn’t understand, or doesn’t know who to talk to, about our basic demands,” Douroumis said sarcastically, referring to Greek premier Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

“Tell Mitsotakis our demands are clear. They include minimum prices that cover our costs, abolition of state taxes at the pump on fuel used for farming, an agricultural electricity rate of 7 cents per kilowatt-hour, and radical reform of ELGA [Greek Institute of Agricultural Insurance] to guarantee 100% compensation for disasters like the pox outbreak.”

“The farmers are determined, reinforcing their blockades across the country,” reported Efimerida ton Syntakton (Editors’ Newspaper), one of the country’s main dailies (EfSyn), on December 11. Farm organizations have announced they are sending representatives to Larissa, in central Greece, for a nationwide conference on December 13, where they will decide on upcoming actions, the daily said. Farm groups have made it known “we will have Christmas on the streets,” it noted.

According to an interactive map published online by efsyn.gr and updated daily, blockades of highways and other transportation hubs, rallies, and other protest actions were documented in about 100 sites across the country on December 11. They involved tens of thousands of farmers and other agricultural producers and more than 20,000 tractors.

Recent mobilizations include:

• Hundreds of farmers and livestock breeders entered the northeastern city of Kavala on December 11 with their tractors. They surrounded the provincial government building and dumped a truckload of grapes at its front entrance. They also spilled milk and set hay on fire on adjacent streets. As one farmer told the media, “It’s a struggle for survival.”
• The same day, the national highway remained closed at four sites between Athens and Lamia, a city in central Greece, with dozens of tractors involved at each location. Hundreds of tractors on the outskirts of Larissa, another city in central Greece, were also blockading the Athens-Thessaloniki national highway, the country’s main north-south artery near the Aegean coast.
• “The E-65 blockade is being reinforced daily,” Kostas Tzellas told EfSyn on December 8. He was referring to the main highway cutting through Thessaly, the country’s principal agricultural region in central Greece. “We have surpassed 2,000 tractors. Participation is perhaps the largest in 35 years. I think the number of tractors in Thessaly’s three main blockades exceed those during the mobilizations of 1996. And this has happened in just one week, as we decided during our meeting in Nikea [the November 23 gathering that launched the nationwide protests].
  “Special measures are needed to support the livestock breeders who have lost their entire herds due to pox. They have to wait six months after the last incident before they can get access to capital to replenish the animals they lost. We also just had floods in Farsala and the villages around Karditsa. Fields and homes flooded. Where are the anti-flood measures we have been hearing about since Daniel [the 2023 rainstorm that devastated most of the Thessaly plains]?
  “We need the Greek people on our side. We live in a country that produces everything, but we face the risk of collapse of agricultural production and abandonment of the countryside. Young people leave and don’t return to farming.”
• On December 11, hundreds of farmers from western Macedonia, the largest northern province bordering Bulgaria and former Yugoslavia, rolled with their tractors into the city of Kozani, surrounding the offices of OPEKEPE to carry out its symbolic closure. This is the state institution that was in charge of disbursing EU farm subsidies and has been at the center of the recent scandal.

The EU farm subsidy scandal

The scandal — which dominated news headlines earlier this year — involved illegal payments of EU subsidies to non-beneficiaries through fictitious pasture declarations, false leases of state lands that were nature preserves and not cultivated, and systematic cover-up by officials. The fraud went on for eight years.

The findings of the EU investigation have implicated five ministers and ten members of parliament from the governing New Democracy party, along with other state officials — a number of whom have been indicted on criminal charges. Five government officials were forced to resign last summer. The Mitsotakis government also announced the staged closure of OPEKEPE and the transfer of its functions to another state agency.

The EU imposed a fine of €415 million ($484 million) on Greece for mismanagement and inadequate controls of OPEKEPE subsidies. The Greek government in turn froze disbursement of subsidies to most agricultural producers. Farmers, who depend on these funds for next year’s crops, call this “collective punishment of the innocent.” They have taken to the streets to press for the immediate release of these funds, among other demands.

Police repression

Tensions escalated between protesters and the police and other state authorities during the second week of mobilizations.

At mid-day on December 8, hundreds of farmers, livestock breeders, beekeepers, and fishermen rolled with tractors and pick-up trucks toward the airport of Heraklion, the largest city on Crete and the island’s capital.

Large numbers of riot police prevented access to all roads leading to the airport. As the protesters stood their ground, indicating they were determined to reach the airport, police attacked them with pepper spray, tear gas, and stun grenades. The confrontation effectively shut down the airport for half a day.

Local media later showed images of dozens of farmers who evaded the police blockades and walked onto the airfield of the Nikos Kazantzakis international airport in Heraklion, forcing airport authorities to suspend all flights.

By 7 p.m. protesters withdrew, allowing passengers stranded inside the airport to leave. But they declared they would shut down the airport again at 11 p.m. until the next morning.

“We had no intention of inconveniencing travelers,” Lefteris Triantafilakis, president of the local livestock breeders’ association, told Cretalive, an online news platform in Crete. “From the start, we asked for understanding from the public, most of whom have been on our side.”

A similar confrontation took place the same day near the airport of Chania, Crete’s second largest city. Police blocked hundreds of protesters from reaching that airport, using tear gas against the farmers, many of whom overturned a police vehicle in response.

During these clashes police arrested two people and announced they have identified 200 individuals through video surveillance. State prosecutors told the media they intend to bring criminal charges against many of those the police have accused of violence.

“The government and the police are to blame for the incidents in Crete,” Gargoula told World-Outlook during the December 9 interview in Messini. “They are forcing farmers to revolt this way, blockading not only highways but ports and airports. They are leaving us no alternative.”

Such confrontations have taken place elsewhere. During the first week of mobilizations a police bus rammed through an array of tractors blockading a highway on the outskirts of the northern city of Serres, near the border with Bulgaria, injuring several farmers.

“It’s us or them,” said a disgusted farmer after that police assault, speaking anonymously to EfSyn to avoid retaliation by the police.

Responding to a question from a reporter, another farmer in a blockade nearby told the same newspaper he has no fear of being arrested since he may end up in jail anyway because he is unable to pay debts that burden him and so many of his colleagues.

Farmers and fishermen blockade port of Volos

On December 10, farmers and livestock breeders, supported by local fishermen, staged a coordinated land and sea blockade of the port of Volos, a city on the Aegean coast of central Greece.

Hundreds of farmers rolled into the city with tractors, pick-up trucks, and cars and drove to the port while honking their horns in unison. Many had traveled from as far as Karditsa and Trikala, about 120 km (75 miles) away, to reach Volos. As the farmers approached the port, dozens of fishing boats sailed around the harbor lighting smoke-producing torches in solidarity with the farmers.

“We have a lot of people with us,” Christos Pantzios told the media, speaking on behalf of the agricultural producers.

Large numbers of riot police had shut down all entrances to and exits from the port, as well as access to the customs offices, to prevent protesters from reaching them.

The protest ended peacefully after several hours.

Two days earlier, the commercial ferry Diagoras sailed empty from the port of Mitilini, on the Greek island of Lesvos near Turkey. The ferry, which was scheduled to dock at the ports of Chios and Piraeus next, left behind 160 passengers, 25 trucks, and 46 cars after protesting farmers blockaded the entrance to the port.

Similar symbolic blockades have taken place at ports in Igoumenitsa, on the Ionian coast of northern Greece across from the island of Corfu, near Ioannina; and Thessaloniki, the country’s second largest city and capital of Macedonia.

Labor and student solidarity

Thousands of people rallied December 8 in Athens, outside the Ministry of Agricultural Development and Food, to show their solidarity with protesting farmers. The action was called by trade unions, student groups, and women’s and other organizations, according to EfSyn.

“Grant the Farmers Just Demands” was the theme of the rally.

“Workers, farmers; one voice, one fist,” demonstrators chanted.

“The common struggle of farmers, workers, and all the people is our only strength,” read a large banner by the Textile, Garment, and Leather Workers Union.

“OGE stands with farmers and livestock breeders and demands measures to support them,” read a number of placards held by members of the Organization of Greek Women (OGE, its acronym in Greek).

Many students took part in the action, which was large enough to shut down Acharnon, a major avenue near the agricultural ministry, while dozens of riot police guarded the building.

On December 11, students at the Agricultural University of Athens shut down Iera Odos, a major avenue by their school near the city center, to show solidarity with protesting farmers, the conservative daily Kathimerini reported. “Students – Farmers, One Voice and One Fist,” read the main banner held by the students.

Despite the intensifying protests, the government has not shown willingness to meet the farmers even part way. Prime Minister Mitsotakis has promised that the suspended EU farm subsidies will be disbursed soon, without setting a date for such an action. He has also called on farmers to end the blockades and send delegates to “negotiate” with government officials.

‘Victory or death’

“This time we are not backing down,” said Barba Kostas [Uncle Kostas], as Douroumis is affectionately called by fellow farmers in Messini. “We are losing our land.”

The EU farm subsidy scandal and the government’s indifference to dealing with the pox outbreak were “the straw that broke the camel’s back,” he added.

Douroumis and Gargoula made a point during the December 9 interview to highlight the flag the Messini agricultural association is using in local protests. “Victory or death” it reads on top. The bottom inscription is a famous proverb from Greek mythology. “Η ταν η επι τας,” it reads in ancient Greek. It’s what Spartan mothers told their sons while handing them the shield they would carry to battle: “Either come back with it, or on it.”

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