After visiting a farm in Côte d’Or (Burgundy) to visit discuss the problems of the agricultural world, in the absence of the agricultural fair canceled this year by the crisis in Covid-19, President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday reaffirmed its support for farmers. They demand decent incomes within the framework of the difficult annual trade negotiations which determine the prices with the large distribution and the industrialists of the food industry.
During this visit, Emmanuel Macron made no allusion to the controversy surrounding the decision of the ecologist town hall of Lyon to provide unique menus without meat in the canteens, described as ” shame “ by the Minister of Agriculture Julien Denormandie Tuesday on RTL but defended the day before by the Minister of Ecology Barbara Pompili.
A call for reconciliation
But the head of state stressed that the agricultural transition will not be possible “On the basis of invectives, prohibitions” and of “Demagoguery”.
Regarding the negotiations, Emmanuel Macron hoped that producers, processors and distributors “Reconcile” and don’t play anymore ” against each other “. “It is in everyone’s interest that the negotiations go well”, declared the Head of State while visiting a farm in Étaules (Côte d’Or).
The annual trade negotiations, which determine the prices of products sold in supermarkets (excluding private labels) and the remuneration of all links in the food chain, must be completed by March 1. But the government had to “Raise the tone”, according to Emmanuel Macron, by warning that he would continue to intensify checks by the fraud repression services.
“We must fight for the fair return of value to producers”, insisted Emmanuel Macron, once again welcoming their commitment since the start of the Covid crisis. ” I’ll never forget “ qu’“They fed the country when it was closed” with confinement, added the president, accompanied by the Minister of Agriculture, Julien Denormandie.
It’s “complicated to make ends meet”
This visit to Étaules was organized in the absence of the agricultural fair, which is usually held at the end of February but was canceled by the pandemic.
The Head of State used to spend an entire day – 12 hours last year – at the largest exhibition in France to meet players from the different sectors of agriculture and food.
“This year, the show is at home”, smiled Alexandre Estivalet, one of the four managers of the Étaules farm, a village about fifteen km north of Dijon. “The situation for farmers is difficult. It’s very complicated to make ends meet ”, he testified. “We work more than 60 hours a week, with little family life, but if, in the end, we have no salary, it is not possible”.
He explained to Emmanuel Macron that farmers were “Ready to make a lot of efforts for the ecological transition” if the state “Supported them and did not add even more restrictive rules”.
“The drama of French agriculture is that there will be no peasants if there is no income”, added Christian Decerle, president of the regional chamber of agriculture, during a round table chaired by Serge Papin, the former boss of System U commissioned by the Ministry of Agriculture.
– .
