Italy’s Farm Lobby Presses for Stronger EU Support

Italy’s farmers are facing a mix of pressure from climate change, rising costs and weak bargaining power in the food chain, and the country’s main farm lobby says the response must start with income, water, rural services and a stronger European farm policy.

At its assembly in Rome on Thursday, Cia-Agricoltori Italiani re-elected Cristiano Fini, a wine entrepreneur, as president for a second term and set out what it sees as the sector’s main priorities: protecting farm income, defending internal rural areas from depopulation, pushing back against climate damage and resisting any weakening of the European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy.

The meeting drew video messages from Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Agriculture Minister Francesco Lollobrigida, Industry Minister Adolfo Urso and Environment Minister Gilberto Pichetto Fratin, along with messages from European officials including Roberta Metsola, the president of the European Parliament, Christophe Hansen, the European commissioner for agriculture, and Olivér Várhelyi, the commissioner for health and animal welfare. Their remarks underscored agriculture’s political weight at a time when food prices, trade tensions and weather extremes are reshaping the sector.

Meloni said Italy was “a superpower in agrifood,” citing about 5 million jobs tied to the sector, 15% of gross domestic product and a record 72.4 billion euros in exports. She said her government had put more than 15 billion euros into agriculture over three years through support for young farmers, innovation, logistics, supply-chain contracts and renewable energy projects on farm buildings.

Fini said farmers were being hit first by what he called a “permanent storm” of war, climate shocks and economic strain. He pointed to sharply higher input costs, including diesel prices that have doubled and fertilizer increases such as urea at 43% and ammonium sulfate at 20%. He called for emergency measures similar to those used during the pandemic, including direct support for fertilizers starting in 2026, suspension of import duties, changes to the European carbon border mechanism known as CBAM and stronger action against speculation.

He also urged the European Union to treat food production as essential infrastructure. “Food sovereignty is the basis of a people’s freedom,” he said. “A people that cannot feed itself is vulnerable.” He argued that agriculture should be seen not as a marginal activity but as a strategic asset for national security and social cohesion.

One of Cia’s central demands is a better distribution of value along the agrifood chain. The group says farmers are still too often paid too little compared with processors, distributors and retailers. Fini outlined a three-part strategy: stronger producer organizations through cooperatives and vertical integration; tougher rules on transparency and fair pricing; and a new pact with consumers built around health, sustainability and shorter supply chains.

That includes calls for an effective ban on sales below cost, tighter enforcement against unfair trading practices and an institutional price-monitoring portal. Cia also wants more support for local markets, farm shops and other short supply chains that can keep more value in rural areas while giving consumers more access to Italian products.

Climate risk was another major theme. Fini said droughts, floods, intense rain events and soil loss are already threatening production across Italy. Cia is promoting its “Water Caravan” project to map problems and good practices region by region, along with a “100 Good Works” plan aimed at identifying shovel-ready infrastructure projects rather than broad wish lists.

The group says Italy needs more reservoirs, better irrigation efficiency and faster repairs to water networks that lose about 40% of supply. It also wants wider use of precision irrigation and rural energy communities. On soil protection, Cia is pressing for a law against unchecked land consumption, stronger safeguards for fertility and incentives to recover abandoned farmland.

The organization is also asking for broader insurance tools to cover climate and market risks, plus a single incentive system for carbon farming, biodiversity protection and hydrogeological maintenance. It wants faster approval of new plant-breeding technologies under European rules on NGTs, arguing that innovation will be necessary to keep farms productive under changing weather conditions.

Rural depopulation was presented as both an economic and social problem. Fini said people should have “the right to stay” in inland areas without being pushed out by poor services or lack of opportunity. He described farms as potential hubs for tourism, welfare services, energy production and environmental management. He also proposed training programs for what he called “territory managers,” farmers who could coordinate local development while continuing to produce food.

Cia wants permanent training schools for farmers that would include business planning, artificial intelligence and big data. It also wants digital tutors in rural areas to help farms adapt to new tools. But Fini said none of that would work without basic services: broadband internet, local health care, schools that remain open in small towns, housing incentives for young families and tax advantages for remote areas.

The Common Agricultural Policy remains another flashpoint. Fini said Cia would defend it as a fully common European policy with its own budget. He rejected any move toward renationalizing farm support or folding it into a single EU fund. That would fragment resources and raise the risk of cuts, he said. He welcomed recent signals from the European Parliament calling for a larger 2028-2034 budget envelope.

Trade policy is also under scrutiny. Cia says any new agreements with countries outside the EU must require full reciprocity on environmental, labor and food-safety standards. Fini warned against deals that would let in products made under weaker rules than those faced by European farmers. He cited Mercosur negotiations and U.S. tariffs as examples of why Brussels needs a stronger commercial strategy that protects producers instead of exposing them to unfair competition.

Lollobrigida said Italy had made progress on farm income compared with other European countries and urged Brussels to suspend import taxes on fertilizers. Schlein said Europe needed more joint investment to help farms adapt to change and lower energy costs by expanding clean power. She also backed stronger services in inland areas and greater support for geographical indications in export markets.

The assembly came with new polling from Cia Trend showing how deeply climate risk has entered public opinion. The survey found that 91% of Italians worry about landslides, floods and hydrogeological instability; 89% see farmland abandonment as a factor in worsening those risks; and more than 80% agree that supporting farmers means investing in collective safety. At the same time, nearly half of consumers say they have already cut back on grocery spending even as 51% say Italian origin is their top criterion when buying food.

For Cia, those numbers reinforce its argument that farming is not only about production but also about territory management, public safety and national identity. The challenge now is whether Rome and Brussels will turn that message into policy before higher costs, weaker margins and harsher weather do more damage to an already strained sector.