Agriculture: unions put pressure on future government

Barely emerging from a deep crisis, agriculture is facing several disappointments. The exceptional rainfall recorded since the fall of 2023 has had a significant impact on crops (wheat, vineyards, etc.). In support, the State has decided to provide property tax reductions on undeveloped properties. “This procedure will rely on the prior knowledge of the territorial directors of the department (DDT) to establish the perimeter of the affected plots and the final loss levels locally, which will allow Directorate General of Public Finance to proceed with relief ex officio. , without individual action by those responsible,” Bercy said this week.

Commitments in limbo

In addition to these climatic conditions there were several outbreaks of bluetongue (BCF), also known as “bluetongue”, and bird flu during the summer. The retiring minister Marc Fesneau went to a sheep farm in Flagy, in Saône-et-Loire, this Friday, to meet breeders, elected officials and unions and to take stock. L’The State will order several million additional vaccines and provide them free of charge to breeders, he announced, as requested by the unions.. But they are also waiting for cash flow support. To ease the anger at the beginning of the year, the government announced more than a billion euros in measures, from emergency aid to guaranteed loans. Gabriel Attal especially enthusiastic at the end of April that Bpifrance will release an envelope of at least 100 million euros to provide cash loans of up to 75,000 euros and that it guarantees commercial bank loans of up to 200,000 euros for the problem of large farms. Since then, these promises have been in limbo, denied by the unions. “Too many promised measures are not in place – cash flow support through the Public Investment Bank has not seen the light of day even though the needs are great and the situation is now becoming critical for many farms after the disastrous harvests”, said the FNSEA. and Young Farmers, who held the conference back to their school on Thursday 29 August.

Eight months after the crisis began, they are waiting for more than temporary measures. For the two majority unions, “the status quo has lasted long enough”. “All the structural measures, which are likely to restore the desire for production to French agriculture, have been brutally canceled and there is nothing to show that the new government will take over the commitments,” they recall, in a press release.

Bill in 38 articles

In fact several accounts were suspended during the distribution. This is the case of the agricultural management bill which was supposed to respond above all to the demographic challenge that is approaching (50% of farmers will be old enough to retire by -within ten years). The Senate voted on May 28, despite strong opposition (see our article of May 29), was deposited on the Senate desk. But there is nothing to ensure that the future government will put it on the agenda. So both unions took advantage of the summer to write their own bill called “Entrepreneurship in agriculture”. “Agriculture today needs something more than dealing with the issues of the day, it needs decisions”, said the president of the FNSEA, Arnaud Rousseau, warning: “Lack of response also leads to anger .”
This text in 38 articles aims to address issues of productivity, income, sovereignty and generational renewal. It includes most of the measures that appeared in the previous government’s bill, as a result of a long consultation and changed in the context of the crisis: giving a -in the recognition of the main general interest of agriculture, the creation of contracts for the future, in France. agricultural services counter for installation and distribution, bachelor’s degree in agriculture, etc. Both unions will also offer agricultural savings products and attractive tax measures. And they will add a share on prices.

Agricultural land

While an environmental bill was approved by the Senate at the beginning of April providing for the establishment of “minimum purchase price of agricultural products” – also blocked by the distribution – and that the government wanted to work on its own text, the unions propose interprofessional indicators of return production costs -compulsorily enter into contracts, with a date for signing contracts set for December 1, the opening date of commercial negotiations between manufacturers and distribution They are also considering sanctions. to strengthen, in particular by setting the public support received by institutions that offer collective catering, to the electronic publication of their products on the platform Ma Cantine “At the end of August 2024, only a little more than 39,000 restaurants listed, or 49% of the total,” they say.
Accepting the goal of 400,000 farms (and 500,000 farmers), the text strengthens the part “agricultural land”, the poor relationship of the government project (see our article of May 31), by strengthening the control power of Safer and increasing the transfer of public funds for land ownership, in conjunction with voluntary communities and the Caisse des Dépôts.