Agriculture and Food Minister Margaritis Schinas has outlined the prospect of total investment of €1 billion in water resource management by 2034, funded through European funds and Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs).

He was speaking at the Cantina Academy roundtable, entitled “Primary Production – Greece 2040: What Will We Produce, Where and Under What Conditions?”

Asked about the most important change that needs to begin today to ensure Greek agricultural production remains sustainable and competitive, the minister identified three key priorities: water, cooperation and technology.

He placed particular emphasis on the need for major interventions in water resource management, acknowledging that Greece had lost valuable time.

“We have lost a great deal of time in managing our country’s water resources. We have done a lot, but not on a sufficiently large scale,” he said, adding that water management to date had been characterised by the fragmented use of available resources.

He then outlined the level of investment required: “The country can look forward to total investment of €1 billion in water by 2034.”

As he explained, this investment could come either from European funds or through Public-Private Partnerships. Schinas stressed the need for large-scale projects, with particular reference to Thessaly and other areas facing serious constraints as a result of the existing water management model.

“We need to make a substantial impact on water resource management in the years ahead,” he said, explaining that a significant leap in efficiency was needed to transform production conditions across entire agricultural regions.

Cooperation and technology as the other two pillars

Alongside water, the minister identified cooperation between producers, the state and cooperatives as the second priority, in order to address the fragmentation of agricultural land.

He noted that small landholdings and difficulties in managing farmland were limiting the efficiency of Greek agriculture. Without collective solutions that would enable production on a larger scale, the problem would continue to hamper the development of the primary sector.

According to Schinas, technology is the third pillar, with applications including hydroponic greenhouses, data utilisation and precision agriculture. These technological changes, he said, were already taking place at local level and were expected to have a significant impact on how farms operate.

From subsidies to investment and quality

Addressing the long-term direction of Greek agriculture, the minister argued that the country’s competitive advantage lay not in the volume of its output, but in the quality and added value of its products.

He cited the transformation of the production model in Macedonia, where traditional crops such as tobacco had given way to high-value export products, including kiwifruit, cherries and asparagus.

In this context, he assigned the private sector a decisive role in identifying new markets and investment opportunities. The state, meanwhile, was responsible for establishing a flexible regulatory framework, an effective agricultural payment system and securing the necessary European funding.

The minister spoke at the Cantina Academy roundtable, which brought together representatives of government, agricultural production, university research, finance, investment, energy and the market to discuss the choices that will shape the future of Greece’s primary production sector through to 2040.