Agrardiesel: Challenge for farmers and new funding!

Agrardiesel: Challenge for farmers and new funding!

The current situation of agriculture in Germany is shaped by various challenges that include both financial and political aspects. The Maschinenring Südpfalz faces developments that could affect the industry. A ray of hope are the recently announced agrardiesel funding, which, however, are overshadowed by uncertainties, especially with regard to possible tariffs to wine exports.

The agrardiesel has experienced changes through the introduction of the "Second Budget Finance Act 2024". The calculation of the agricultural reimbursement is gradually reduced by 2026. While Agrardiesel is not immediately abolished, the reimbursement amount changes significantly. From 2024, two different relief rates apply: In January and February, relief will be 21.48 cents per liter for consumption by the end of February, after which it will drop to 12.888 cents per liter by the end of the year. For the reimbursement, precise inventory information on various key days is required, which represents an additional burden for the companies.

Detailed requirements for reimbursement

The companies must report their remaining stocks on December 31, 2023, February 29, 2024 and December 31, 2024. In addition, precise specification of consumption is necessary for the first two months of the year. Deviations in consumption must be explained, which usually requires complicated calculation methods. A simple average calculation could be inadequate and cause problems with the differences of the remaining stocks. An example illustrates this: From a remaining stock of 1000 liters on December 31, 2023, over 500 liters on February 29, 2024, to purchases from 2000 liters in March, it can be seen that the average recording does not always reflect reality.

The increasing burden of high diesel prices is another challenge. Germany is currently one of the countries with the highest agrardia leaves, and is currently ranked to seventh place. Against the background of the predictions, Germany could rank fifth and in 2025 to third place, which will further tighten the competitive situation of the German farmers. A special challenge is the forecast that from 2026 the agrardiesel refund will decrease to zero in both Germany and the Netherlands, while the CO2 prize in Germany continues to increase and thus also load diesel prices.

market developments and outlook

like the Wochblatt DLV reports in Germany on January 1, 2024 per liter, which compared to the Netherlands with 1.72 Euro per liter is slightly lower. These figures illustrate the high pressure on farmers who have to assert themselves in an international competition.