Langer continues to rumble: dozens of blocking and arrest actions have been announced again [d’ici à la fin du mois de novembre]. It must be said that French agriculture is in turmoil, like never before in this century. The sharp rise in energy and input prices had already weakened the cash flow of agricultural operations. For two years, health crises have decimated the herds.
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At the same time, farmers who produce under the sign of quality, who have been encouraged to create more added value, have suffered the collapse of demand since inflation and the decline in purchasing power have taken hold. The organic farmer sells his milk less expensively than his neighbor who produces standard milk and, for the first time in twenty years, the area cultivated organically is decreasing in the country.
Agriculture has entered a deep crisis. France has lost a quarter of its farms in ten years, particularly in livestock farming, and this movement is accelerating. Farms are getting bigger and bigger, more and more in debt, more and more difficult to pass on within a family framework. Incomes are increasingly unstable and for several years, 20% of farmers have been living on less than 6,100 euros per year. Deficits of key products (fruits and vegetables, meats, vegetable proteins) are widening. If we exclude wine, France has become a net importer of agricultural and food products.
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And everything is in place for the crisis to worsen. Lactalis announced in September that it was putting an end to the collection of milk from nearly 300 breeders. A way for the multinational to continue to put pressure on breeders and on the prices it imposes on them. The famous “compulsory contractualization” between breeders and dairy manufacturers will therefore not have compensated for the deregulation of the markets: the abolition of guaranteed prices and milk quotas, which the Prime Minister, Michel Barnier, also endorsed when he was Minister of Agriculture in 2008, has led to extremely volatile prices, which often do not cover production costs.
Vulnerable model
Lactalis also probably anticipates the consequences of the free trade agreement between the European Union (EU) and New Zealand, signed in January and entered into force in May: 5,000 tonnes (for 2024) and up to 15 000 tonnes (from 2031) of milk powder with very low customs duties can be imported into the EU. President Macron, however, continues to defend these trade agreements, which have multiplied and subject breeders to fierce and unfair competition. This is the case with the agreement with Canada, already implemented, and the one to come with Australia. Worse: President Macron did not prevent the agreement with Mercosur, the conclusion of which could be announced in a few days.
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