The Agricultural Show opens its doors this Saturday in Paris. Between the ban on neonicotinoids, the organic crisis, bird flu or the return of drought, the agricultural files for Emmanuel Macron, expected to open the event, are piling up.
• The ban on neonicotinoids
Emmanuel Macron probably won’t be able to avoid the thorny subject of neonicotinoids. In compliance with a European court decision, France was forced to renounce to authorize by derogation the treatment of sugar beet seeds with neonicotinoids, these insecticides implicated in the massive decline of bee colonies. However, when they were initially banned in 2020, the harvest had been drastically reduced due to a severe bout of jaundice and the losses had not been fully covered.
In early February, the FNSEA orchestrated a show of force by parading more than 500 tractors through the streets of Paris to denounce the government’s renouncement of neonicotinoids. To try to defuse the situation, the Agriculture Minister has already promised that all beet losses will be made up if jaundice breaks out again in 2023, fearing that some will stop growing them. I’m not sure this is enough to calm the discontent of beet growers.
• The organic crisis
It is one of the victims of inflation: organic farming struggles to get out of the current bad streak. In the midst of an inflationary crisis, consumers are turning away from organic products, which are often seen (rightly or wrongly) as more expensive than their traditional counterparts. According to panelist NielsenIQ, sales of organic products fell 7.4% in supermarkets in 2022, an even steeper drop in specialty stores. A turnaround after ten years of double-digit growth.
Farmers and industrialists in the organic sector are upset by the government’s inaction, despite pleas for help. Alert messages pile up on the eve of the inauguration of the Agricultural Fair. In a rare move of heart on this issue, the FNSEA and the unions of Young Farmers, the Chambers of Agriculture and the Agricultural Cooperation judged that the response of the Ministry of Agriculture “was not satisfactory” in the current state of the discussions, asking ” temporarily help” producers to get out of the crisis.
• Tense trade negotiations
Particularly tense annual trade negotiations will end at the heart of the Agricultural Fair. L’Ania, the main organization of the agri-food industry, estimated last Wednesday that barely one in two industrialists had signed all their contracts with their distributor clients, an unusually low rate for this period. Traditionally difficult, the discussions are even more difficult this year, interrupted by the sharp increase in production costs.
Egalim laws protect agricultural raw materials in trade negotiations, but farmers are not spared from the ups and downs. Because the tensions between manufacturers and distributors are reflected in the farmers, who need to sell their production and increase their prices to cover the rising costs. “If we no longer have our tools to transform our products, they will no longer reach your plates,” said the president of Young Farmers (JA), Arnaud Gaillot, on Friday.
• The return of the drought
Barely gone, the drought is back. France could experience many water restrictions from March, unprecedented restrictions so early in the year, after a new record of around thirty days without rain and a very dry winter. Groundwater, already depleted by last year’s record drought, is struggling to recharge. A tense topic: a thousand farmers demonstrated preventively last Tuesday in the Landes to defend their sampling quotas.
With a situation destined to repeat itself due to global warming, the question of water reservoirs is fundamental in the agricultural landscape. The Minister of Agriculture recently announced the commissioning of around 60 new agricultural waterworks projects by June, suggesting that Emmanuel Macron would address the issue of “budgetary means”. But these projects are causing great tension among environmental activists, who are calling for a rethinking of the French agricultural model.
• Avian flu
There are no chickens in the halls of the Salon de l’agriculture, confined once more due to the bird flu that has continued to rage for more than a year. Chickens, turkeys, ducks, laying hens… No less than 25 million poultry died from the virus or were culled in 2022 to stop the spread of the epizootic. And, in addition, many farms have remained empty for a long time, due to sanitary delays before being able to welcome new chicks or ducklings, interrupting the production of meat or eggs.
Despite the absence of chickens, bird flu will be inevitable for Emmanuel Macron. Because poultry farmers are particularly concerned about the increase in imports: poultry imports have increased by more than 10% in 2022, as a result of the drop in French supply due to bird flu and competition from low-priced meats, warned the French interprofessional (Anvol) recently, noting that half of the chicken consumed in France is now imported, compared to a quarter in 2000.
Source: BFM TV
