For the spokesperson for the Peasant Confederation, the situation of farmers will worsen in 2024.
The FNSEA is sounding the alarm and recommending new actions, ten months after the major motorway occupation movement. What does the Conf' say?
We must come together to organize actions too. The movement, in January, was launched by rural coordination and the FNSEA clung to the branches to save the system. We are starting again with the same race to the willow, as the professional elections approach.
What is the situation, in your opinion, ten months after the vast protest movement in the agricultural world?
The situation is worse than last year. Whatever the sectors, it is difficult. Except for very large farms like in Beauce…
What got worse?
The free trade agreement for milk (with New Zealand, which entered into force in the spring, editor's note), not denounced by the FNSEA, is catastrophic. Lactalis will be able to rain or shine and we will lose our last dairy producers. At the wine level, there is terrible distress, with cellars that have stopped paying. Roughly speaking, we produce 40 million hectoliters in France, for a consumption of 21 or 22. There is something that is not working. And the rural coordination does not want any uprooting!
What do you recommend?
Strong measures are needed, with support to allow farmers to diversify. We must also move away from total free trade, by establishing a minimum price of entry into the territory. What the farmer receives must allow him to cover the cost price, earn a salary and obtain social protection. Currently, the prices charged do not allow this. We need regulation of production and markets.
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