Does France want to liquidate organic farming? Le Monde report
One of the first to raise the alarm was the dairy sector but the organic crisis in France has gradually spread to other sectors: eggs, chicken, fruit and vegetables and even cereals. Farmers are waiting for strong support from the state, which however has not done much so far. The Le Monde article
“I destroyed part of my organic orchard,” says Joachim Gaignon, an arborist of 30 hectares in Varennes-sur-Loire (Maine-et-Loire). “The production cost of my organic gala apples is over 1 euro per kilo, while my selling price is less than 50 cents per kilo,” explains the farmer, whose production is very focused on the Pink Lady variety grown in conventional way and which he wanted to diversify. This, writes Le Monde , is just one example of the crisis that has continued to affect French organic agriculture for over two years.
THE SECTORS AFFECTED BY THE ORGANIC CRISIS
The dairy industry was one of the first to sound the alarm. “We have downgraded (i.e. sold organic milk as conventional milk) 15% of our volumes by 2022, then 28% by 2023, and the level should be the same this year,” says Nathalie Delagnes, a dairy farmer from Aveyron with 50 dairy cows and president of the Biolait cooperative, which collects milk throughout France. However, he points out that with the price of conventional milk rising in 2023, the shock has been somewhat cushioned for farmers. “We reached a price of 482 euros per tonne, all bonuses included. But the context is less favorable in 2024,” he adds. Volumes, for their part, are in sharp decline.
The crisis gradually spread to other sectors: eggs, chicken, fruit and vegetables and even cereals. “We really felt the impact in 2023. Organic cereals lost 150 euros per ton in one year. The price of eggs has also fallen. In total 35,000 euros less for our company. I've been a farmer for twenty-five years and I've never seen such a huge decline,” says Philippe Henry, who produces cereals, potatoes and eggs in Meurthe-et-Moselle. Added to this is the reduction of subsidies from the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). “Under the new CAP, the eco-regime has been set at 110 euros per hectare. In the end we received 90 euros per hectare.
FRANCE NO LONGER FINANCES ORGANIC
In this context of unprecedented difficulties, the government pretended nothing had happened for a long time. Only at the last Agricultural Show, in 2023, did former prime minister Elisabeth Borne agree to allocate a paltry budget of 10 million euros. Then, as the months passed, the total amount of aid reached 90 million euros at the end of the year and Agence Bio's communication budget was increased.
Insufficient, according to the Fédération Nationale de l'Agriculture Biologique (FNAB), which had estimated the necessary financial support at 270 million euros. For a certain period, hopes of obtaining this aid were expressed in the budget law, but they were dashed when article 49.3 of the Constitution was invoked. Finally, as farmers' anger boiled over in January, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal announced a new allocation of 50 million euros. “The proposed amounts are not commensurate with the crisis, because all sectors are affected,” says Delagnes, who also underlines that “by 2023, many farmers will not meet the eligibility criteria for aid.”
HOW MANY BIO FARMERS ARE IN FRANCE
There is a strong risk that some biofarmers will abandon agricultural activity or even cease it, while slowing down the arrival of new applicants. In 2022, the balance was still positive, with the number of certified organic farmers exceeding 60,000, with 60,483 units. Farmers obtain organic certification after three years of conversion. The effect of the crisis was therefore delayed. But it should now be reflected in the figures. At Biolait, for example, the number of milk producing members dropped in one year from 1,370 to 1,270. There are also fears that the amount of useful agricultural land grown without synthetic fertilizers and pesticides will decline, with the figure set to stand at 10.7% for the first time in 2022.
LAWS ARE NOT ENOUGH
“We have a short-term need to support all organic farms. But we also need recognition of the organic project in France,” says Philippe Camburet, president of the FNAB, who questions the government's real intentions: “Is this a form of liquidation of organic agriculture? – when, so far, the resources deployed have not achieved the declared objectives, including that of reaching 18% of organic agricultural surface by 2027.
For example, the EGalim law, which establishes the obligation of 50% quality branded products, of which 20% organic, in collective catering, has not been respected, despite repeated commitments to enforce it in public establishments. “Today the percentage of organic products in the collective catering of public establishments is 7%”, explains Laure Verdeau, director of Agence Bio. This percentage drops to 1% in commercial catering.
IS THERE STILL A FUTURE FOR ORGANIC?
According to Verdeau, the restaurant market must replace domestic consumption, which is in constant decline. This is even more true if we consider that more and more organic product shops are closing and that supermarket shelves have been emptied of organic products in favor of first-price products, more accessible to consumers in a period of inflation. For Verdeau, “the French declare that they want to abandon the food and health transition in favor of pleasure and conviviality”. The abundance of labels has confused consumer orientation and organic food struggles to make its voice heard.
In this context of crisis and at a time when the future of organic farming has not been at the center of the debates sparked by farmers' anger and is almost never mentioned by the main agricultural union, the Fédération nationale des syndicats d'exploitantsagricolturas ( FNSEA), expectations for the Ambition Bio plan 2023-2027 are high. After being postponed, the plan was due to be presented by the government at the Agricultural Show on Wednesday 28 February.
(Excerpt from the foreign press review edited by eprcomunicazione )
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/la-francia-vuole-liquidare-lagricoltura-biologica/ on Sat, 02 Mar 2024 06:00:30 +0000.