What hurts EU farmers the most are the huge supermarket chains which control prices. The rules®ulations thing is an often cited meme but the price war is much more impactful.
In fact we could produce for example in Germany milk in a sustainable and very environmentally friendly way if it would just cost a couple cents more, like 10 cents or even less.
But consumers will basically riot if you raise the prices there so the supermarket chains don’t do it and instead put more pressure on the farmers to produce cheaply.
If you read the MERCOSUR agreement then you’ll see there are a ton of protections included against the thing you are afraid of.
We do have those markets but they are much more expensive (for exactly that reason that they aren’t subject to the price gauge as the supermarkets are).
They are essentially for some (rich) hippies/yuppies only.
I can’t speak for other EU countries but in Germany people will buy the cheapest food almost always. Quality or farmer welfare is a minor concern for the majority.
In fact we could produce for example in Germany milk in a sustainable and very environmentally friendly way if it would just cost a couple cents more, like 10 cents or even less. But consumers will basically riot if you raise the prices there so the supermarket chains don’t do it and instead put more pressure on the farmers to produce cheaply.
If you read the MERCOSUR agreement then you’ll see there are a ton of protections included against the thing you are afraid of.