In the midst of the anger of the agricultural world, Michel-Édouard Leclerc tries to defend the role of mass distribution and more particularly the brand that bears his name. To this end, he affirmed on Sunday, on the Public Senate channel, that the meat sold in Leclerc supermarkets comes “99%” from outside the Mercosur zone.
The EU-Mercosur trade treaty is particularly controversial. It plans to eliminate most tariffs between Europe and Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. Pushed by countries like Germany and Spain, the European Commission wants to adopt it before the end of the year despite strong opposition from France and other European countries as it stands.
Carrefour’s promise to the FNSEA
One of the major sticking points in the treaty concerns the prospect of imports of beef from Brazil and Argentina, whose health standards are less strict than in the EU, causing concern among French farmers ready to enter a second week of mobilization.
The mass distribution giant Carrefour, for its part, has undertaken to “not market any meat from Mercosur”, in a letter sent on Wednesday to the majority agricultural union FNSEA in which its CEO Alexandre Bompard calls on “the players in the catering industry” to do the same.
Leclerc believes that “it’s not a good deal”
“On the other hand, our agri-food manufacturers […] must tell us in processed products where their products come from,” continued Michel-Édouard Leclerc on Sunday, suggesting that pieces of meat from Mercosur could be found among the components of these products. “This agreement is not completed and must not be signed,” he also said, when asked about the agricultural part of the EU-Mercosur treaty.
And according to him, “the French and European administration is fighting to ensure that our farmers respect standards, but we are not asking for the reciprocity clause. So it’s not a good deal.”
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