On The Land
5 April, 2026
Ag groups slam free trade deal
TWO powerful representative groups for the agricultural sector are far from happy with the free trade agreement Australia signed with the European Union last week.
Canegrowers and AgForce have made it clear the agreement falls short of what the sector wanted and needed.
Canegrowers chief executive officer Dan Galligan has slammed the outcome for sugar in the long-awaited agreement as a complete failure, saying it failed cane farming families and Australia’s sugar manufacturers.
“This is a horrendous outcome for Australia’s cane growers,” he said.
“For the past decade we have made our needs abundantly clear to the Australian Government and they have not delivered. There is no meaningful commercial access for sugar in this deal.
“The market access Australia has achieved is extremely small – less than 2% of Europe’s import requirement and well below what Brazil and its Mercosur partners secured last year, which was around four times larger than Australia’s outcome.
“Compounding this, the agreement delivers no growth, no pathway to expand access and effectively locks growers into a bad deal for the next generation.
“It’s a capitulation to protectionist European sugar interests, plain and simple.”
Mr Galligan said the outcome was particularly frustrating given the EU’s ongoing need for imported sugar.
“The EU is a net importer of sugar and must bring in significant volumes each year to meet domestic demand,” he said.
“Australia can help meet that demand with high-quality, sustainably produced sugar, but instead we have been locked out.”
Under the agreement announced in Canberra last Tuesday, Australia will receive an additional 35,000 tonnes of quota access over three years – building on the longstanding 9,925 tonne allocation.
“These volumes are not economically meaningful. They will not shift the dial for growers or materially change Australia’s position in the European market,” Mr Galligan said.
“This is not what genuine market access looks like.
“We support trade liberalisation, but it has to be meaningful. Growers need outcomes that create genuine opportunity, not agreements that deliver nothing now and take us backwards when it comes to trade liberalisation.”
AgForce has joined with the National Farmers’ Federation and others across the agricultural sector in expressing deep disappointment at the outcome of the trade agreement negotiations, warning it failed to deliver meaningful outcomes for Queensland producers.
AgForce general president Shane McCarthy said the agreement fell short of expectations and highlighted the mounting pressures facing Australian agriculture.
“Across all commodities, there is a consistent concern that this agreement does not deliver the level of access needed to support growth in Australian agriculture,” he said.
“We echo the concerns raised by the National Farmers’ Federation and others across the sector - this deal does not provide the meaningful market access Australian producers were seeking.
“This is shaping up as a perfect storm for producers. A disappointing EU deal, ongoing fuel and fertiliser supply pressures and increasing regulatory burden through measures like the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act reforms are all hitting the sector at once.
“At a time when farmers should be focused on producing food and fibre, they’re instead dealing with rising costs, supply uncertainty and growing compliance pressures.
“At the end of the day, every Australian relies on farmers. We need policy settings that back producers in – not make the job harder.”
