Pascal Deshayes, President of the Coordination Rurale de Meurthe-et-Moselle, explains the explanations behind French farmers’ massacre: drought, floods, crop failures, epizootic illnesses, unfair competitors from overseas producers, and insane middlemen’s margins. “60% of farms don’t have any money circulate”, he says. Interview.
Coordination Rurale has been main actions within the Bouches-du-Rhône area since Thursday. Why this new revolt within the farming world?
Coordination Rurale was already the instigator of the 2023 demonstrations that started within the south-west of France. However we’ve had nothing however blah-blah from successive governments, Attal or Barnier. Nothing concrete has been accomplished for agriculture, aside from just a few small measures.
Right now, farmers are on the finish of their tether. They’ve simply endured two execrable years in a row: final yr’s drought, and this very moist yr: we had 1650 mm in a brief area of time, with out with the ability to sow correctly, and harvests have been very poor throughout France. No area was spared. Consequently, 60% of farms don’t have any money circulate. Add to this the catastrophic costs. Costs had risen barely on the time of the warfare in Ukraine. However inputs (fertilizers, plant safety merchandise, animal feed, and so forth.) have doubled and even tripled.
And Mercosur isn’t going to assist…
I don’t wish to denigrate, but it surely’s the FNSEA, which has been co-managing for 40 years, that has led us into the wall. It’s the FNSEA that has endorsed this complete system. In actual fact, in 1992, the Coordination was born out of a pact created and backed by the FNSEA. The FNSEA’s then president, Henri De Benoist, demanded that we decrease our costs to world ranges in order that we might export. Nonetheless, FNSEA dissidents understood that it was not doable to dwell on state subsidies. Right now, we’re on a drip-feed of presidency and European subsidies. Agriculture is managed by an out-of-touch administration. This has to vary. What we would like are remunerative costs.
Why don’t you need Mercosur?
If you wish to promote Airbus or automobiles, the variant is all the time agriculture, it’s all the time towards foodstuffs. Mercosur will deliver 99,000 tonnes of meat to France. Good cuts, at low costs, however with no well being assure. Whereas French and European livestock farmers have to fulfill draconian requirements, in Chile, Argentina and Brazil, cattle are raised with implants of their ears to extend manufacturing.
We’re calling for a mirror clause. In different phrases, items coming into France should meet the identical requirements as these imposed on us.
And no one cares about shoppers’ well being?
Through the Covid, everybody ate nicely, sourcing their meals from brief distribution channels. Right now, many French persons are strangled by buying energy and purchase first-price merchandise. In different phrases, imported meat. We all know that meat consumption in France has fallen during the last 5 years. Right now, it’s stabilizing. French manufacturing is down 7%. Which implies 7% extra imports. All of the small and medium-sized livestock and dairy farms in mountain areas are affected. They may disappear.
There’s Mercosur, but in addition Ukraine
Sure, that is additionally one in every of our large issues. Europe is planning to combine Ukraine into the EU, which represents 18 million hectares of farmland. As a lot as France. We’re all the way down to 400,000 farmers. Europe, with its well-known requirements and its Inexperienced Deal, now not needs French farmers. They’re going to supply in Ukraine, the place there’s huge potential, with a mean of 30 to 40 quintals and a possible of 80 quintals if we work usually. Clearly, this competitors worries us.
With the Russian-Ukrainian warfare, we imported hundreds of thousands of tonnes of wheat at €130, delivered to French silos. The Poles, the primary to be affected, have emptied lots of of vehicles on the border.
There’s Ukrainian wheat, but in addition chickens…
Through the newest demonstrations, Coordination Rurale was knowledgeable that customs had intercepted a truck in Lesménils (54) with 25 tons of rooster frozen for 2 years! So it’s the French agri-food trade that’s been shopping for up this crap to make nuggets, that are then resold at large margins. It’s not supermarkets that make large margins on meals, it’s the middlemen between producers and distributors.
Multinational meals corporations?
For me, that’s the place all of it occurs. Whenever you see a gaggle like Lactalis placing farmers out of enterprise by saying “we’ve bought sufficient milk”. It’s unacceptable. Lactalis is one in every of France’s greatest multinationals.
When you’ve a majority union that has been co-managing for 40 years with all of the governments and that endorses all this, it’s inadmissible. We denounce it at Coordination rurale. We realized on September 23, 2023 that it was Arnaud Rousseau, president of the FNSEA, who had secretly negotiated with Bruno Le Maire (then Minister of the Financial system) to extend GNR (non-road diesel) taxes over 4 years to 2 euros, in return for the incorporation of diester (biodiesel) to decarbonize agriculture. Besides that the one diester producer in France is the Avril group, whose chairman is none aside from FNSEA president Arnaud Rousseau. With 78 vegetation in 31 nations worldwide!
What are your subsequent actions?
We don’t wish to display simply to harass the identical individuals again and again. However once we’re up towards the wall, as we’re right this moment, our anger explodes. Particularly as we’re at the moment going through two main issues. These are the epizootic illnesses, bluetongue, which is inflicting main injury to livestock, and avian flu, notably within the south-west. Whenever you add all of it up, it’s straightforward to know why persons are at their wits’ finish. They don’t have anything left to lose. We’re afraid they’re going to interrupt every part.
