Agriculture Minister Luis Planas sent last week to Spain’s leading farm associations UPA, COAG and Asaja a plan for a rapid response featuring 43 measures. Planas explained on Monday that these proposals aim to address the demands that triggered recent demonstrations over the past two months. The minister described the package as a set of ideas, some without an immediate calendar, designed to ease the farming sector and to foster the entry of new professionals, supporting the generational shift that the sector has long sought.
Simplification of bureaucratic burden and flexible timelines
In addition to applying the common agricultural policy adjustments approved by EU ministers last Tuesday, which include, among other things, an exemption from controls and penalties for reinforced conditionality on farms up to 10 hectares and greater flexibility in applying PAC eco-schemes in the 2024 single application, the Spanish government promises incentives to facilitate the use of the digital farm notebook. This notebook will be voluntary and will come with relaxed requirements for enforcing the cattle management decree, making practical adoption easier for farmers.
It is also noted that georeferenced photos to prove crop status will no longer be required for certain aid criteria, and there is a one-year delay in the obligation to adopt the fertilization plan as part of soil nutrition simplifications.
The proposal also garnered approval for a single integrated inspection system for farmers and ranchers. Regional authorities will coordinate inspection services to minimize the number and scope of checks, ensuring they stay to the minimum necessary regardless of the type of control.
International trade of agricultural products
A permanent working group will monitor agrarian exports and imports, according to Planas. This marks progress on one of the fiercest sector demands: the unfair competition from products arriving from outside the European Union that do not meet the same sustainable production standards. The ministry pledges stronger coordination of border inspection services for imports from third countries.
In the meantime, and not before the upcoming European Parliament elections, the government will defend in community and multilateral forums the use of mirror clauses in trade relations and will not authorize EU-wide tolerances for imports through maximum residue limits. A first filter will be established, with some differences expected, but it will represent a step in the right direction.
Enforcement of the food chain law
The minister plans to meet this week with members of the Agency for Agro-Food Control and Information (AICA), which will become a state agency with stronger inspection capabilities. Its creation could be enacted as an amendment to existing legislation currently in process to accelerate the establishment of the new body.
The government also intends to increase the number of economic inspections and publish fines collected, while moving to quarterly meetings of the food chain costs and margins observatory instead of semiannual sessions. There will be more published studies on margins across the different food chains.
Agricultural insurance system
The insurance coverage topic continues to rise with climate change, droughts, and increasingly extreme weather events. The ministry pledges support for the 2024 plan of combined agricultural insurance, with an eight-point percentage increase in premium subsidies for farmers and prioritized farming operations.
Possible tools will be explored to cover extraordinary losses with supplementary funds, and maximum subsidies will be extended to professional farmers, prioritized holdings, and young farmers in 2025, with an exemption for modulation for those groups.
Fiscal, financing and labor measures
This is arguably one of the most powerful sections of the rapid plan and among those welcomed by farmers, who lament that the announcement comes as tax season is already underway. Enterprises in the module regime, about 800,000 nationwide, will be allowed to deduct 15 percent of the 2023 tax year, five percentage points above the original forecast. There will also be a review of how IVA compensation is treated to enable more farmers to join the module-based objective estimation regime.
The government also commits to maintaining, for the rest of the term, the fuel tax break for agricultural diesel, a 35 percent deduction on farm fuel and fertilizer receipts, and a 15 percent deduction on fertilizer costs — measures introduced after the Ukraine war but whose duration remained uncertain.
On financing, a new credit line with an extra 20 million euros is set, plus seven million for guarantees, with a 15 percent subsidy on the principal and the guarantee’s total cost. This will mobilize 200 million euros for youth-focused initiatives and provide 50 million euros to guarantee loan operations ranging from 100,000 to 2 million euros, totaling 500 million euros. In effect, a potential ICO credit line could reach up to 700 million euros overall.
Animal health and a Forum for Extensive Livestock
The ministry, in collaboration with farm organizations and regional authorities, will convene a thematic forum on extensive livestock during the first half of April to analyze the sector’s main health challenges and profitability concerns. It will provide funding for tuberculosis control campaigns that cannot be covered by EU animal health funds.
Discussion will also cover how to reinforce border inspection coordination for imports and how to address issues facing extensive grazing systems from both health and economic perspectives.
Youth integration into agricultural activity
The ministry will host a sector-specific extraordinary conference with regional authorities to tackle generational renewal issues and youth farmer involvement. The aim is to develop a joint action plan that improves youth integration and visibility, reduces barriers to entry, and makes PAC and national resources more efficient for young farmers.