The labor deficit is the first clear observation from the 2023 report drawn up by the Market Gardeners of Armor. The vegetable cooperative brings together 475 producers in Trégor-Goëlo. “It is also the first obstacle to production,” assures its president Gilbert Brouder, from the Paimpol headquarters.
The sector represents around 3,000 direct and indirect jobs and “we are missing around a hundred, on farms or in packing stations”. In question ? Housing problems. And mobility. Some producers no longer hesitate to look for accommodation solutions. And a transport shuttle now exists from Lannion. Established in partnership with the local Mission (Ajoca), it is renewed for 2024 and serves farms in the Kermaria-Camlez-Plougrescant area. “It is complete, the model is relevant,” note those responsible. It remains to sustain the operation. As such, the cooperative “hopes for the contribution of Leader funds this year”.
Outlet issues
The deadline of January 1, 2025 for heating greenhouses with renewable energy is worrying. “No producer will stay organic if it remains as it is,” believes the president. To hear him say, even the banks, which were pushing for organic, will not lend.
Producers are also increasingly forced to sell products via conventional channels. With obvious shortfalls, facing drops in consumption and “unsustainable” competition from imports, hardly subject to “the same standards or production costs”.
This is the last “black point” and not the least: 135 producers are over 55 years old. And despite a “current installation dynamic that we didn’t even hope for, there is a lot of work to be done on this side,” indicates director Anne-Marie L’Aminot. For the cooperative, the solution would be better support. A mission manager position was created with this in mind. Her task ? Support candidates, as closely as possible, in the “obstacle course” that a sale or takeover can represent.
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