A first response to the anger of farmers? The Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire indicated this Friday during a press briefing from the Ministry of Agriculture that he had noted “a certain number of infringements” of the Egalim law on the part of “industrialists” and “of certain distributors. However, these transgressions have an impact on farmers’ income, he indicated.
The Egalim law, parts 1 and 2 of which were passed in 2018 and 2021, is supposed to protect the income of farmers, against agri-food manufacturers and mass retailers. But in certain sectors, the account is not there. “There is no food sovereignty without fair income for producers,” said Bruno Le Maire. This is why he announced the “multiplication of controls on the fair application of the law”, with controls which will be doubled, and sanctions on offenders, which “will fall quickly”.
VIDEO. Angry farmers: “A sanction of 2% of turnover” for distributors who do not respect the Egalim law
“Starting next week, I will send injunctions to all manufacturers and distributors who are in violation to comply with the law. I will only give them a few days to strictly and rigorously comply with the law,” insisted the minister. “Failure to do so, they will be penalized up to 2% of their turnover,” he threatened.
The Minister of the Economy had just participated with his counterpart in Agriculture, Marc Fesneau, in a follow-up meeting on commercial negotiations between large retailers and their suppliers.
“A panoply of answers”
The agricultural world, which has been demonstrating for a week to protest against a drop in income and an accumulation of standards, plans to increase the pressure a notch by blocking major access points to Paris on Friday, in addition to roadblocks throughout the country. . They are impatiently awaiting the announcements promised by Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, who is due to speak at the end of the day.
He will announce a “range of responses” to the anger of farmers during his visit to Haute-Garonne, assured the Minister of Agriculture Marc Fesneau during the press briefing with Bruno Le Maire. “To respond to this crisis, which is a serious crisis, we need to hear what farmers are doing and what they are saying,” he said.
“We need to have operators who are economically responsible and patriotic to French agriculture,” he said, adding to call “also for a form of agricultural patriotism.”
