Agricultural settlement 2024, Norwegian Farmers’ Association | The farmers could just as well have been government employees

With this year’s offer, the state support per farmer now rounds NOK 1 million a year.

Less and less of the farmers’ income is taken out on the market, even though they have a near-monopoly on many product groups.

The self-employed have become the non-independent recipients of support.

When you hear the farming industry argue, it sounds like they are doing the rest of us a big favor because we have allegedly outsourced food production to them. It is no more true than that we have outsourced the cafe and restaurant operation to that industry.

In reality, Norwegian farmers get up in the morning to produce food for a market, and they have the pleasure of being able to charge the world’s highest food prices from Norwegian consumers.

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As is known, the Norwegian Farmers’ Association and the Norwegian Farmers’ and Small Farmers’ Association demanded a total of NOK 3.9 billion in this year’s settlement.

The state offers NOK 2.6 billion and in that way follows up some adventurous agricultural settlements in recent years.

Forget the lack of nurses, now the big money goes to the farmers. On average, they get NOK 70,000 in increased income opportunities and get NOK 45,000 more in salary growth than the groups they compare themselves to.

More expensive food for most people

The 2.6 billion is a joint venture between taxpayers and consumers – i.e. most people.

Around NOK 525 million comes from higher target prices, or an agreement that farmers can charge better for the raw materials they produce. The majority comes from milk and cows, the government’s offer shows.

Measured only in raw material prices, this is around NOK 350 for an ordinary family, but when increased raw material prices have passed through the entire value chain, food prices become significantly higher than for customers of a normal grocery store.

The support goes straight to waste

Norway is subject to the regulations from the WTO against subsidies, and must report the various supports to the trade organization as respectively direct state aid and so-called shielding aid, or in a slightly uglier word – customs walls that make foreign goods more expensive in Norway.

From the sidelines, it is interesting to see how dissatisfied the farmers are with their own governing party, despite adventurous budget increases in recent years. According to the government’s offer, budget support has increased from NOK 17.5 billion for 2022, to NOK 28.9 billion this year. That is a growth of 65 percent. The power support comes on top.

For most people, this means that food will be more expensive, but that the bill will be split between the tax bill and the cash register. When the current government took over, 71.3 per cent of farmers’ income came from the market, while it is now down to 64.2 per cent.

At the same pace, it will not be many years before the independent, private farmers have mainly become recipients of state support.