Who Gets Paid for Our Food? Fair Prices From Field to Fork

MIJARC Europe | Reboot the Food System | July 2026

Think about the last loaf of bread you bought. How much of that price do you think went to the farmer who grew the wheat? Most people guess somewhere between a third and a half. In reality it is usually just a few cents. The rest goes to milling, baking, packaging, transport, energy, the shop, and the margins of everyone along the way.

In our trainings this year we did a simple exercise: participants had to split the price of an everyday product between everyone in the chain. Almost nobody got close to the real share of the farmer. That moment of surprise is usually where the most interesting discussion begins.

Squeezed in the middle

Farmers sit at the weakest point of the food chain. They buy seeds, fuel, fertiliser and machinery from a few big suppliers, and they sell to a few big buyers. In most European countries a small number of processors and supermarket chains control a large part of the market. That gives them the power to set prices, and farmers too often sell for less than it cost them to produce.

This frustration was one of the reasons behind the farmers' protests that spread across Europe in 2024. The specific demands were different from country to country, but low and unfair prices came up almost everywhere.

The rules that exist

Since 2019 the EU has a directive against unfair trading practices in the agricultural and food supply chain. It bans things like very late payments, cancelling orders at the last minute, or making suppliers pay for products that were not sold. It was an important step. But many farmers are still afraid to complain about their biggest buyer, and enforcement is very different from one country to another.

What we can do

Fair prices are not only a question for Brussels. Where we buy food is a small choice, but it adds up. Buying directly from farmers, joining a food cooperative, or asking your school or university canteen where its food comes from all make a difference.

On the policy side, young people can push for:

• More transparency on how food prices are built along the chain

• Stronger enforcement of the rules on unfair trading practices

• Support for cooperatives and producer organisations, so farmers can negotiate together

• Public canteens that pay fair prices to local producers

A food system where the people who grow our food cannot live from their work will never be sustainable, however green it looks on paper.

This article was produced within the project Rebooting the Food System, co-financed by the European Union through its Development Education and Awareness Raising (DEAR) programme.

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Co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.