Gus Trompiz
Reuters
POLIGNY, France: French President Nicolas Sarkozy unveiled on Tuesday 1.65 billion euros ($2.46 billion) in support for France’s struggling farmers, and called on Europe to move faster in reinforcing regulation in the dairy sector. The national plan, to be put in place before the end of the year, would include 1 billion euros in bank loans and 650 million euros in exceptional state aid, he said.
The “unprecedented” measures reflected the severity of the difficulties facing agriculture, he said, citing plunging producer prices, insufficient regulation and unequal margins along the food chain.
“The crisis that the whole of the farm sector is experiencing is not merely a cyclical crisis,” Sarkozy said in a speech in eastern France. “This crisis is a structural crisis.”
French farmers have been pushing for action to counter falling farm income and turned out in force earlier this month for protests that included a brief occupation of the Champs-Elysees avenue in Paris.
Sarkozy also answered farmers’ calls for their sector to be given the same importance as others that have benefitted from large state aid during the economic and financial crisis.
“Farmers are a part of France’s national identity and the key to a sector that has as much potential for the future as nanotechnologies or aerospace,” he said.
Farm unions cautiously welcomed Sarkozy’s speech.
“The mobilization of farmers since early September has produced some answers today,” Dominique Barrau, general secretary of the FNSEA, France’s main farm union, told Reuters.
“The best plan, even if large, will never be a substitute for a policy on prices,” he added.
Sarkozy said his government will reinforce monitoring of food margins by a committee set up earlier this year, calling “unacceptable” a 20-percent drop in French farmgate prices in the year to September while consumer prices fell by just 1 percent.
He also called for more action by the EU, which decides the farm policy and budget for the 27-member bloc.
In the dairy sector, the focus of protests by European farmers this year, Sarkozy said he wanted the EU to introduce reinforced regulatory support at the start of 2010 and not wait for a group of experts to report back in next June.
“On October 30, I will ask the European Commission to reinforce its means of regulating the milk sector from the beginning of 2010,” Sarkozy said, adding he would raise the issue when German Chancellor Angela Merkel visits Paris Wednesday.
France had secured at an EU farm council last week 280 million euros in aid for dairy producers, plus approval to beef up safeguards such as intervention buying. Sarkozy also called on the EU to introduce a “genuine regulation” to limit speculation in agricultural commodity markets, without specifying possible measures.
Under the national support announced for French farmers, they are to have access to 1 billion euros in loans to boost their short-term liquidity, with repayment deferred by a year and interest partly covered by 60 million euros in state aid.
The government will also offer aid to reduce social, property and energy taxes for certain farmers, with an emphasis on young and recently established producers.
In a bid to reduce labor costs that have been cited as a major handicap for French produce, especially fruit and vegetables, Sarkozy also said farmers would be exempt from some charges for seasonal workers.
The financial support unveiled for farmers will be complemented by the development of contractual deals between farmers and the food industry to be outlined in a farm bill to be finalized by the end of the year.
“I want balanced contracts that will be regulated by the state,” Sarkozy said. “These contracts will be rolled out in each farm sector.”
Listen to the Article 
Printable Version 
Send to a friend 