Representatives of the Union of Farmers of Castilla y León have warned this Wednesday that the next cereal campaign will start conditioned by "very high" production costs and a notable drop in prices, which in the case of durum wheat could reach up to 30%.
"We are starting the campaign with these premises and, furthermore, in the crops in the northern part of the country, we must add the high temperatures of these days, which are totally anomalous and we hope they do not last much longer," added the OPA, which has calculated that the "high production costs" represent about 200 euros more per hectare compared to the last campaign.
To elaborate its diagnosis, UCCL has reviewed the most significant markets at a national level and has carried out a study of the evolution of prices between 2021 and 2026. This analysis shows a clear containment of prices, with decreases that can exceed 30% for durum wheat, 12.97% for soft wheat, 10.40% for barley, and 13.74% for grain maize.
The agricultural organization has related current prices to those registered three decades ago and has attributed this situation "to a large extent" to the continuity of massive cereal imports from Ukraine. "It cannot be that Spanish farmers are the scapegoats of the war in Ukraine," denounced UCCL, which stressed that international conflicts affect prices, "both for their increase and now for their decrease."
At the same time, the OPA has called for urgent measures to curb the "high production costs" that, it acknowledges, are suffocating the countryside. UCCL has detailed that the average increase of close to 30% in diesel and fertilizers, common to different crops, will cause profitability margins to be "quite reduced" and has reiterated the concern of a sector "that has generally always been profitable, especially due to the versatility and usefulness of this crop."
In this context, UCCL has reiterated that, to face "these extra costs," it is essential to maximize the aid announced by the Government within the framework permitted by the European Union, so that up to 70% of extraordinary costs can be covered until December 2026, in addition to incorporating new support proposals on the table.