Berlin has been brought to a near standstill by the demonstration, which filled one of its central avenues with trucks and tractors as some 10,000 farmers arrived to cap a week of protests against taxes that have become a flashpoint for anti-government anger.

“I can’t promise you more state aid from the federal budget,” Lindner told the crowd from a chilly stage in front of the Brandenburg Gate. “But we can fight together for you to enjoy more freedom and respect for your work.”

The protests have heaped pressure on Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s coalition as it struggles to fix budget disarray and contain right-wing groups.

The protests surged after a government decision to phase out a tax break on agricultural diesel as it tried to balance its 2024 budget following a constitutional court ruling in November that forced it to revise its spending plans.

Faced with a backlash, the government has already said it will maintain a tax rebate on new agricultural vehicles and spread the scrapping of the agricultural diesel subsidy over several years.

But farmers, with the vocal backing of the opposition conservatives and the far-right, say that is not enough.

“I have respect for every politician who is prepared to come to us,” said Farmers’ Union head Joachim Rukwied, who at one moment had to take the microphone from Lindner and beg the crowd to stop jeering for long enough to listen to him.

“The finance minister is here,” he said. “It makes no sense to boo him.”

The government has taken a conciliatory tone as concern has grown that political debate has become radicalized and demonstrations could turn violent. Protest leaders will meet coalition leaders later this afternoon.

Lindner, describing himself as a lad from the countryside who had mucked out stables in his time, sought, to little avail, to win over farmers by contrasting their peaceful protest in Berlin to the behaviour of climate activists who had sprayed paint on the Brandenburg Gate – “the symbol of German national unity”.

But he said scarce money was needed for long neglected investments in schools and roads and for industrial energy subsidies.

Jeers grew especially loud when Lindner said money was needed because of the war in Ukraine.

“With the war in Ukraine, peace and freedom in Europe are threatened once again, so we have to invest once again in our security as we used to,” he said.

Vehicles that arrived overnight from across Germany parked nose-to-tail along the route, and crowds of farmers, wrapped up against the cold, waved German flags and held up banners marked with slogans including: “Without farmers, no future”.

The governing parties are divided over how best to meet farmers’ demands. Agriculture Minister Cem Ozdemir, a Green, has suggested financial rewards for humane animal husbandry, while some Social Democrats want to offer higher produce prices, and Lindner’s Free Democrats want to cut administrative overheads.

Several bus and tram lines closed for the protest, which was patrolled by around 1,300 officers, police said.

Disruption caused by protests and train strikes last week hurt coalition parties in the polls and propelled the far-right Alternative for Germany party to new heights.

–Reporting for Reuters by Thomas Escritt, Linda Pasquini, and Reuters TV.

The post There’s no more money, German minister tells booing farmers appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

In an unscheduled statement late on Monday, the German drugs and pesticides maker said it was projecting 2023 earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA), adjusted for one-offs, to be in a range of 11.3 billion euros ($12.5 billion) and 11.8 billion euros on a currency-adjusted basis, down from 13.5 billion euros reported for 2022.

That was lower than a previous 2023 outlook of 12.5 billion euros, or slightly higher.

Free cash flow would come in at zero, down from a previous prediction of 3 billion euros, said the company, which is due to release detailed second-quarter results on Aug. 8.

“Based on the anticipated market development, in particular with respect to the glyphosate business, Bayer also expects to record a goodwill impairment of approximately 2.5 billion euros,” it said.

That would result in a second-quarter net loss of 2 billion euros.

Analysts at Deutsche Bank said dry weather conditions in particular had hurt farmers’ demand for seeds and pesticides.

The tougher environment adds to challenges faced by new CEO Bill Anderson, the former Roche ROG.S executive who took over the top job in June.

“This is an anything but a good start for the new CEO,” Markus Manns, portfolio manager at German mutual fund firm Union Investment, said on Tuesday.

“Bayer could have used the money for debt reduction or for pharmaceutical licensing deals,” he added.

Analysts at Barclays said the dwindling cash flow was a particular surprise, and that Anderson was likely keen to get the bad news out quickly to allow for a fresh start.

“This feels like a kitchen sink to us,” they said.

Bayer shares dropped as much as 3.2% in early trading but were up 1.6% by 0854 GMT.

Weak agriculture markets have also hit rivals, so that Bayer’s profit warning was largely foreseen by analysts. Crop protection company FMC FMC.N this month cut its full-year guidance after wholesale distributors slashed orders to reduce inventory levels. Industrial chemicals group BASFBASFn.DE, which competes with Bayer in seeds and pesticides, this month cut its earnings guidance, though it did not provide details on its agriculture business.

Bayer had already warned in May that its 2023 results would likely come in at the lower end of its targeted range, hurt by cost inflation and a slump in prices of glyphosate-based weedkillers from last year’s highs.

Bayer saw herbicide sales jump 44% in 2022 after Hurricane Ida damaged rival producers and constrained Chinese suppliers failed to plug the gap. Prices have been dropping sharply as competitors have returned to the market this year.

Bayer, which has paid billions for litigation over its glyphosate weedkillers, replaced its previous CEO Werner Baumann early amid demands from some investors that the German industrial giant simplify its diversified structure and split into separate groups.

($1 USD = 0.9032 euro)

–Reporting for Reuters by Thomas Escritt and Ludwig Burger.

The post Bayer slashes outlook as glyphosate demand weakens further appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

Authorities in the German state of Brandenburg quarantined a 15-km area around where the boar was found to search for any more dead animals and also restricted the movement of farm animals.

South Korea, Germany’s second largest pork customer outside the European Union, announced a ban on German pork imports.

ASF is not dangerous to humans but is fatal to pigs and a massive outbreak in China, the world’s biggest pork producer, has led to hundreds of millions of pigs being culled.

Major pork importers such as China often impose bans on imports from countries where ASF has been found, even if only in wild animals.

“The attention is now on whether importing countries, especially China, impose import restrictions on German pigmeat,” said Andre Schaefer at commodity brokerage Kaackterminhandel GmbH.

“China especially is a vital customer for Germany. If import bans are imposed we could see pork prices under pressure in Germany,” he said.

German pork exports to markets including China and Japan are likely to come to a stop along with South Korea, German meat industry association VDF said.

The association said Asian importers are especially important buyers of pork products which are not popular in Europe such as feet, ears, tails and bones.

Export curbs would prevent these products being sold as food and “would have a strong influence on product flows in the pork market.”

In the first four months of 2020, Germany exported 158,000 tonnes of pork worth 424 million euros (C$658 million) to China, double the amount in the same period last year, the country’s statistics office said.

‘No reason to panic’

Agriculture Minister Julia Kloeckner said Berlin had been in contact overnight with China, adding that Germany does not have a formal agreement with China about the disease, “so therefore we are in permanent dialogue.”

Germany is stressing “the principle of regionality” in the case, she said. Regionality means buyers impose import restrictions only on parts of a country affected by a serious animal disease, she said.

Germany has built hundreds of kilometres of fencing along the Polish border in an attempt to stop the disease being spread by wild boar.

Berlin has been concerned ASF could enter the country after a number of cases were confirmed in recent months in wild boars in western Poland, with one only about 10 km from the frontier.

Cases have also been confirmed recently in about 10 other European countries, where wild boars are suspected of spreading the disease.

Kloeckner said she expected German pork exports to other European countries to continue.

The case is “no reason to panic,” Kloeckner said, adding that authorities were intensively assessing what measures needed to be taken to combat the disease and prevent it spreading to commercial pig farms.

The German farmers’ association DBV on Thursday called for a corridor free of wild boar to be created along Germany’s border with Poland.

— Reporting for Reuters by Thomas Escritt and Michael Hogan.

The post Swine fever found in Germany putting pork exports at risk appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

The country grew wealthy selling tulip bulbs in the 17th century during the so-called Dutch Golden Age and remains the second largest agricultural exporter behind the United States.

For decades the FloraHolland cooperative has acted as the hub from which planeloads of flowers from around the world are distributed from vast, air-conditioned warehouses in Aalsmeer, near Amsterdam airport.

The company says it distributes almost 50 per cent of all flowers sold worldwide and last year it reported sales of 4.6 billion euros (C$6.7 billion), mostly from matching growers and buyers at its famous early-morning daily auctions.

But worryingly for FloraHolland chief executive Lucas Vos, sales of flowers by growers directly to buyers have overtaken those sold through FloraHolland’s auctions.

Direct sales from members of the cooperative bypassing the auctions rose by 3.8 per cent to 2.3 billion euros last year.

Auction sales stood at 2.1 billion euros, down one per cent.

“We need to realize that if, for instance, we want to get flowers into China or India… the logistical system we have built for ourselves probably does not fit,” said Vos, who was brought in from shipping firm Maersk in 2014.

In response, FloraHolland is looking to make changes to an auction system that dates back more than 100 years.

It is investing up to 90 million euros over the next five year and plans to develop a 24-hour online dealing platform.

It will be like “a Tinder or AirBNB” for flowers, Vos said.

That could eventually lead to the Dutch auction halls, where some 3,000 work, falling silent, but change is already apparent; some 70 per cent of sales come from remote bidders.

Vos remains confident, however.

“Most producers grow one type of flower, and if you’re a consumer, you want a bouquet,” he said. “There will always be a need for a hub.”

Overseas sites

For European markets, it makes sense to gather flowers in Amsterdam before trucking them to Britain or Russia.

And for growers in Kenya or Ethiopia, for example, being among FloraHolland’s 4,600 members helps maintain stable prices in the face of powerful buyers such as Europe’s top supermarket chains.

Some 50 per cent of Kenya’s flower exports are sold via FloraHolland, and 70-80 per cent of Ethiopia’s.

But being members also means they must commit to sell all of their output via FloraHolland and that can be a handicap when trying to reach Chinese or Indian markets.

Vos said FloraHolland plans to open logistics sites overseas, either near growers in Europe or Africa or near Asian buyers, to preserve the company’s central role in a more devolved global flower trade.

At stake is the Netherlands’ dominance in the global flower trade, which is slipping.

The Netherlands exported 52 per cent of the world’s cut flowers in 2013, down from 58 per cent in 2003, according to Rabobank.

— Thomas Escritt is a senior Reuters correspondent based in Amsterdam.

The post African growers threaten Dutch flower power appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.