Mercosur: does France already import “half of its fruits, vegetables and chickens”, as the FNSEA says?

Does France already import many of the products it consumes? This is what Arnaud Rousseau, the president of the FNSEA, deplores in any case. He strongly opposes the trade agreement with Mercosurnotably because France already imports too much, according to him. That's what he said on franceinfo, Wednesday November 20. “Today, in France, we import 55% of the chickens we consume in this country. We import 60% of our fruits, our sheep, 40% of our vegetables. We import 25% of our beef. subject is our food sovereignty”he concludes.

Correct proportions

What Arnaud Rousseau says is largely true. The figures he puts forward are correct or close to reality. For example on chicken, it is not 55%, but rather 50% imported products. In any case, these figures clearly show a decline in French agricultural production in general, which is not enough to feed the entire population. But it’s not just a question of food sovereignty.

Take for example fruits and vegetables. Arnaud Rousseau is right to say that half is imported. But what he does not specify is that these are partly foodstuffs that do not grow, or very little, in France. For example, the orange you squeeze this morning or the clementine you will eat later. These two fruits are mainly imported, just like exotic fruits. This is also the case for tomatoes. The French find them all year round in stores whereas in winter they cannot come from France, so they are imported from Morocco or Spain. It's the same for kiwis, that we eat all year round, which was not the case in the past.

Chicken production down and consumption up

For the meatthe figures that Arnaud Rousseau gives are also rather true. A little less than half of the mutton is imported. For chickensone in two comes from abroad. For poultry, imports are explained by a drop in production in France due to avian flu in recent years. At the same time, consumption is clearly increasing, in particular because it is a cheaper meat than beef, for example. The beef is also one of the least imported meats. Barely 20% of what we consume. Most of the time, this imported red meat is served in restaurants and fast food chains. Besides the High council for the climate note that“in 20 years, imports of meat and poultry preparations have increased more than fourfold. The importation of foreign products seems to partly meet the demand of the agri-food industry and out-of-home circuits.”