Dozens of tractors and farm vehicles shut National Road 260 near Serpa in southern Portugal early on 2 October, a highway linking Portugal and Spain, backing traffic up for about two kilometres and stopping freight lorries bound for the Spanish border. Only vehicles carrying urgent Spanish cargo were let through.
The protest was organised by the Serpa Agricultural Producers Association, whose growers say high diesel prices have left some farms barely viable as the new planting season begins. Portugal's agriculture minister, José Manuel Fernandes, said such protests were understandable but would not on their own solve the deeper problem: farmers need more financial flexibility to cope with unpredictable costs.
Spanish farm unions including Asaja, COAG and UPA have been organising or threatening nationwide protests over the same issue, and French farmers and fishermen have separately demonstrated over record fuel prices in recent weeks.
New European Commission data show why. EU agricultural output prices fell 5.8% year on year in the second quarter of 2026, the third quarterly fall in a row, while input costs rose 4.7%. Milk prices fell 16.6% and cereals 5.6%. Output prices declined in 20 member states, most steeply in Denmark (17.2%) and Ireland (16.2%). On the cost side, energy and lubricants rose 22% and fertiliser 13.4%.
Brussels set aside €540m in July to compensate growers hit by price swings, with about €107m going to France and €50m to Spain, and published a fertiliser action plan in May, partly in response to the Strait of Hormuz crisis that has curbed Gulf shipments of urea and ammonia for much of the year. Farm groups say the money has not kept pace, and Spanish unions have warned they will escalate unless more relief comes before the autumn sowing window closes.
The dispute also feeds into the long argument over the EU-Mercosur trade deal, which many European farm groups blame for adding cheaper South American imports to an oversupplied market; the agreement is still awaiting ratification in the European Parliament.
Photo: Luis Miguel Bugallo Sánchez (Lmbuga) / Wikimedia Commons (public domain)
Source: Global Agriculture
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