Why Swiss farmers are rising in protest

Farmers in Geneva march with their tractors to demonstrate their discontent, saying they share the demands of farming families in France, Germany and Belgium (February 3, 2024). © Keystone / Martial Trezzini

Farmers are revolting across Europe. Swiss farmers have joined the mix with dozens of protestors driving their tractors into Geneva and Basel over the weekend. But just how important is agriculture to the Swiss economy and how much political clout to do Swiss farmers have relative to their European counterparts? SWI swissinfo.ch explains.

Agriculture plays a multifaceted role in the Swiss economy and politics. The country is renowned for its dairy, cheese, and chocolate industries, which heavily rely on locally sourced ingredients. While farmers boast political clout, agriculture is not exactly the engine of the Swiss economy.

The Swiss government estimates that agriculture contributes less than 1% to GDP, totalling CHF12 billion ($13.7 billion) in revenue in 2022. That’s low relative to other European nations. In Italy, France, Poland and Spain agriculture accounts for more than 2% of GDP. In Germany, which like France faces major farmer unrest, it’s under 1%. Germany, like Switzerland, imported more food in 2022 than it exported in terms of value.

In the Swiss economy, agriculture is characterised by its focus on high-quality, specialty products, with farmers adhering to strict quality standards and sustainable practices. Livestock farming – primarily beef and dairy production – account for half of the revenues generated in this sector, while crop farming accounts for just over a third.

Changes in land use, spurred by government incentives, have seen a shift from intensive towards extensive farming. Organic farming is growing with nearly one in six farms being organic in 2022, almost twice the European average. Large Swiss retailers like Coop and Migros are the biggest distribution channels for local agricultural products of any kind.

Agricultural policy strives to strike a balance between the needs of farmers, consumers and the environment. But farmers – who account for about 1.78 % of the workforce (or 148,000 people) – feel they are getting a raw deal. Grievances include rising production costs, the regulatory burden of green policies, the competitive pressure of free trade agreements, and the perception that retailers are skimming off an extra high margin, particularly on organic goods.

 “In Switzerland, too, free-trade agreements and unequal power relations on the market are putting prices under constant pressure, and farm work is not being fairly remunerated,” laments the French-speaking Swiss farmers’ union Uniterre on its website.

“We want farmers to have a fair share of the retail price and – like all other stages of the value chain – to be able to pass on their additional costs,” concurs Martin Rufer, director of Swiss Farmers’ Union (SBV), which represents the interests of farmers and serves as a prominent voice in political discussions. 

“In the last two years, producer prices have risen too little for the additional costs to be passed on in full,” Rufer told SWI swissinfo.ch in an email.  “Further price adjustments of 5% to 10% are therefore necessary.”

Farmers also feel inadequately compensated for a growing-list of production requirements, he notes. The economic situation of Swiss farmers is not good on average and in many cases precarious. A family worker who works full-time on the farm earns an average of CHF56,100 per year, much less than in other professions. “As a result, on many farms one person still works outside the home to support the family,” he writes.

Political protection?

The political landscape of Switzerland reflects the importance of agriculture through various policies and institutions.  Swiss farmers “are significantly better supported than in EU countries” with “higher direct payments” and “stronger customs protection”, points out Green parliamentarian Kilian Baumann, who also serves as president of the Small Farmers’ Association (VKMB), in Swiss public television RTS’ Sunday programming.

The Swiss government actively supports agriculture through subsidies and policies that promote sustainable farming practices and maintain the picturesque landscapes that define the country. Parliament spared agriculture from budget cuts, and the government has kept fuel tax refunds for farmers intact.

Farmers have a small foothold in parliament. The number of representatives with roots in this agricultural sector increased from 12 to 20 after October’s federal elections. All things considered, Swiss farmers enjoy a comparatively higher level of protection in the realm of politics than their European counterparts, according to anthropologist and agricultural specialist Jérémie Forney.

“Both through the parliament and the direct democracy system there’s a principle of support to farmers,” Forney, who teaches at the University of Neuchâtel, told SWI swissinfo.ch. “That’s attenuated the pressures but doesn’t cancel the processes. That’s why you see similar narratives and discourses than the ones in France: how prices are fixed in the market, overload of bureaucracy. The problems are similar all over Europe.”

Part of the problem is that gobalised food systems have concentrated power in large supermarkets that control both access to market and to consumer. That’s not something greater transparency on how prices are set and negotiated can solve on its own. Most people are locked into a system where they depend on supermarkets to buy groceries.

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Another facet of the problem lies in the pursuit of agricultural policies in the 2000s. Farmers, unfortunately, were relegated to mere executors of decisions, with an overwhelming emphasis on compliance through a checkbox approach, according to Forney. That has led to a perceived conflict between policies that help safeguard the environment versus farmers.

“The question of meaning has been totally forgotten,” says Forney, who also co-directs the CEDD-Agro-Eco-Clim research centre focused on sustainable agroecological systems “Farmers are just giving the role of being the applicant of decisions. It’s’ just about ticking boxes. If you understand what you’re doing, if you find it’s meaningful or not, nobody is interested in that.”

“The unrest in Switzerland,” says Rufer, “shows that there is a lot of pressure in the cauldron.”

What’s your take on the Swiss farmers’ protest? Join the discussion with people from all over Switzerland and with Swiss Abroad: