Around 500 tractors and thousands of farmers to converge on central Madrid on Wednesday, 28 October

What is planned

Farm groups Asaja, COAG and Unión de Uniones will bring around 500 tractors and thousands of farmers and livestock farmers to Madrid on Wednesday, 28 October, to demand urgent measures that secure farm profitability and the future of the countryside. Under the slogan 'Dar de comer tiene que dar para vivir' (feeding people must allow them to make a living), the protest targets rising production costs, weak returns and what the organisers see as threats to farming and livestock. Europa Press reports that Cooperativas Agroalimentarias de España has joined the three organisations, while El Mundo and ABC report that UPA, one of the four main farm groups, has distanced itself from the call. Six tractors from Cantabria will be trucked to the capital from Tuesday, 27 October, and five buses of farmers and their families will leave for Madrid from 05:00 on 28 October.

Route and timetable

Five columns will enter Madrid from Torrejón de la Calzada, Guadalajara, El Espinar, Buitrago del Lozoya and Arganda del Rey, using routes authorised by the Government Delegation. El Mundo gives departure times of 06:30 from El Espinar and Buitrago de Lozoya, 06:45 from Guadalajara, 07:15 from Torrejón de la Calzada and 07:30 from Arganda del Rey. Tractors are expected to start reaching the city around 08:30, and the protest is authorised until 18:00. The columns are due to converge on Plaza de Colón, where the leaders of the three organisations, Pedro Barato, Andrés Góngora and Luis Cortés, are scheduled to speak to the media at 11:00 before the march begins. From there the route follows Paseo de Recoletos and Paseo del Prado to the Glorieta del Emperador Carlos V, ending in front of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food at around 13:00 according to RTVE. The sources do not fully agree on the midday schedule, since one account has the tractors gathering at Colón at 13:00 before a walk to Atocha.

Costs and demands

The organisations link the rise in costs to the war in Iran, which they say has pushed up energy and fertiliser prices. El Mundo calculates that producing one hectare of rainfed cereal rose from 630.75 euros to 766.93 euros in a year, a 21.6% increase, with diesel up 51% and fertiliser up 20%. Over the same year the price farmers receive for wheat rose 14%. COAG secretary general Andrés Góngora put the gap in these terms:

“That gap is the profitability that disappears from every farm, and no farmer can absorb it indefinitely.”

The groups want a short-term plan against production costs, a professional agricultural diesel with reduced and stable taxation, and rebates applied at the pump. They also seek a Common Agricultural Policy with its own sufficient budget line in the EU budget for 2028 to 2034, fair prices, enforcement of the Food Chain Law, and mirror clauses in trade deals with third countries, especially Mercosur and Morocco. ASAJA director general José María Castilla described the sector as suffocating. According to El Mundo, the ministry's only measure so far has been extending the agricultural diesel bonus, which the organisers consider insufficient.

Diesel price51%

Fertiliser price20%

Rainfed cereal production cost per hectare21.6%

Wheat price received by farmers14%

Diesel price

51 %

Fertiliser price

20 %

Rainfed cereal production cost per hectare

21.6 %

Wheat price received by farmers

14 %

Data from the article text

Government and EU context

Agriculture minister Luis Planas said he respects the right to protest but questioned the timing, noting that general elections were called on 5 October and the protest was convened on 9 October. Speaking in Luxembourg, where EU agriculture ministers were meeting, he said the protest was called by three farm organisations rather than all of them, and argued that the sector has absolute agreement with the government on the CAP demands. He said the government's position is fully aligned with farm organisations, regional governments and cooperatives. The general election is set for 29 November. ABC reports that the EU Council reached a partial agreement on the CAP a few hours before the protest, which the ministry welcomed, though the organisers say it does not change their plans.