A note on the EU-Mercosur agreement

A note on the EU-Mercosur agreement

The EU–Mercosur agreement is a significant discussion topic among us in the food and agricultural sector, primarily because it connects two agricultural regions that already share capital, climate pressure, and long term responsibility for land stewardship.

From The Land Group's perspective, the discussion looks less like a contest and more like a realignment, as we operate farms in both Uruguay and Iberia and see how different systems express advantage under different constraints.

Uruguay brings scale, deep livestock expertise and pasture based cattle systems that convert rainfall and grass into competitive protein with low input intensity and strong export orientation.Iberia brings managed scarcity, where operators work with tighter land units, regulated environments, and complex landscapes that reward integration of trees, pasture, and livestock into resilient production systems.

The agreement highlights these complementarities. South America supplies volume and efficiency at scale. Europe supplies systems that embed food production within biodiversity, landscape management, and long duration land value.

Trade openness sharpens incentives on both sides. It encourages South American producers to continue improving traceability, environmental performance and consistency, which is important to level the playfield.

On the other hand It encourages European operators to focus on system design, productivity per hectare, and diversified land use, which have been falling between the cracks largely due to prioritising subsidy maximization.

From an institutional perspective, this dynamic supports portfolio construction across geographies, climates and production models, where diversification across continents reduces exposure to weather, policy and market cycles.

For a platform with a presence in both regions, the opportunity sits in learning transfer, capital discipline and operational excellence.As in anything in life, this agreement does not choose winners, the operators do.

Together we cultivate sustainable growth 🌱


Written by Gonçalo Pereira Miguel.
Agronomist, The Land Group