Even if the tractors are currently put away, the anger of the agricultural world, which has been expressed several times in recent months, is only waiting to be reactivated. The structural problems of the sector are far from having all been resolved, and we must add the economic ups and downs, which have not helped anything.
Since the end of 2023, the agricultural world has been faced with clearly unfavorable weather conditions. And the Landes were not spared: “The climate was the disturbing theme of the year,” summarizes Marie-Hélène Cazaubon, the president of the Chamber of Agriculture.
The cause, as everyone has noticed, is an exceptional volume of precipitation, both in spring and in summer. According to the Dax station, it rained twice as much as normal in June, and again unusually in September, before the passage of Storm Kirk in October…
Less 25% for kiwi
As a result, the cultivated areas in the department are in decline, and on a financial level, the 2024 income of “Ferme Landes” is down 24% compared to the previous year, which had been a good year. 2024 is thus among the four worst years in ten years. The moral is therefore that when we talk about water, “the excesses are sometimes more disturbing than the shortages”, notes Marie-Hélène Cazaubon.
Certain sectors have particularly suffered from these conditions. This is the case of the green kiwi, faced, as the Chamber of Agriculture writes in its economic report, with “the intensification of the phenomenon of dieback linked to excess precipitation”, which results in the death of the trees. . The 2024 harvest is down spectacularly by 25% compared to the previous year, and “some orchards are producing less than 10 tonnes per hectare”, compared to historical yields of 25 tonnes. Despite the success of the yellow kiwi, “there is great concern for the years to come”.
The same worrying observation applies to viticulture, which is facing a structural decline in wine consumption, but which also has to deal with climatic adversity and diseases. The two Landes production areas, Armagnac and Tursan, are affected almost identically: harvest down 28% for one, 23% for the other. Knowing that this is “the fourth year of significant losses for wine growers, we are approaching a critical situation”.
For organic farmers too, the context is not favorable, the sector being in crisis at the national level. Even if their number remained stable in 2024 in the Landes (411), the cultivated areas decreased by 600 hectares.
Finally, the year was difficult for poultry producers, because if consumption is increasing in France, it is mainly in the inexpensive “everyday poultry” sector. In Landes, production under Label Rouge fell by 11%, and even by 17% for chicken under IGP Liberté.
Good year for asparagus
So, 2024, a year to forget for the agricultural world? It's a bit like that, yes, even if a few rare sectors have done well. This is the case of Landes asparagus, which finally benefits from the Red Label, and whose production peak fell a week before Easter, an ideal time. Even though yields have fallen, the rising sales price ensures a successful year economically.
Same satisfaction among producers of foie gras palmipedes. Despite an alert at the beginning of November, the implementation of vaccination has made it possible to reduce the threat of avian influenza. The recovery in production is there, with an 11% increase over one year, reaching 5.4 million ducks produced. The short sector, with “540,000 animals, was finally able to return to production levels enabling all outlets to be ensured”. A few weeks before Christmas, it's always difficult.
