The statistics, for subsidies in 2008, show that an elite class of beneficiaries got more than 700 payments of at least 1 million euros ($1.33 million). The largest payment, 140 million euros, went to the Italian sugar company Italia Zuccheri. An Italian bank, ICBPI, got more than 180 million euros in five payments.
The list shows that an Irish agribusiness called Greencore, which produces Weight Watchers meals in the United States and Europe, received more than 83 million euros in 2008, the fourth-largest subsidy. The French chicken giant Doux earned almost 63 million euros.
Under pressure from the 27-nation European Union, 26 countries published the information. Farmsubsidy.org, a nonprofit group that campaigns for transparency in the reporting of subsidies, compiled a list of the top recipients in 18 of those countries. The group said it could not include data from nine countries for technical reasons. Germany has not disclosed recipients.
The list reflects the way huge agribusinesses in the European Union receive the biggest slices from a farm subsidy pie that is worth more than 50 billion euros a year across all member nations.
“There is no argument for these larger payments,” said Harald von Witzke, a professor of international agricultural trade and economic development at Humboldt University of Berlin. “If they are designed to be part of social policy, there is no justification. If they are meant to compensate farmers for having higher environmental standards in the E.U., then they are being paid too much.”
Simon Michel-Berger, of Copa-Cogeca, which represents European farmers and agriculture cooperatives, disagreed.
“We think it’s justified that larger farmers receive larger single farm payments than smaller ones because they are also taking care of a larger area of land,” he said. “In addition, one should also consider that we have a progressive income tax in all E.U. member states, and so larger farmers will already be paying more in tax than smaller farmers.”
The newly released figures still leave many questions unanswered, including what company practices led to the payments.
“The problem is that we don’t know why this money was paid,” said Jack Thurston, a co-founder of farmsubsidy.org. “The E.U.’s Common Agricultural Policy is made up of dozens of different schemes from export subsidies to citric acid processing grants to money for organic farming and income support.”
The European Commission, the executive body of the European Union, said it was important to consider the context for some payments. For example, said Kristian Schmidt, deputy head of cabinet for Siim Kallas, vice president of the commission, large subsidies for many sugar producers included one-time payments to help reduce the size of the industry.
