REPORTAGE
You certainly remember the anger and distress of French pig farmers: for years and a few months, they could not live from their work, the fault of a course of pork far too low . And the same price has suddenly taken off almost 40% thanks to a huge demand from China. The country has lost half of its hog herd because of a disease that has no vaccine or treatment. As a result, at the newly-opened Space Exhibition in Rennes, Chinese officials are visiting. François Geffrier was there Europe 1.
"Chinese consumers very much appreciate French pork!", In the middle of a delegation of about thirty Chinese, Zhai Guodong, representative of the livestock bureau of Shandong Province (100 million inhabitants) in the is from China, made 9,000 km to talk business with French breeders.
"Because of African swine fever, there is a drop in pork production in China, so French meat is welcome," he says. As a direct consequence, our farmers sell more expensive: almost 1.70 euro per kilo of pork, after years at 1.20 euro.
Good news for the sector, less good for French consumers
A difference far from negligible for Jean, who had accumulated losses: "The increase in the price will allow us already to pay all the bills we have late.I have been ten years I'm installed. I did not know much about it, we have a hole of about 900.000 euros, which is really welcome. "
For Alain, also a pig farmer, this breath of fresh air will even make it possible to modernize his farm: "Today the project is an investment in a building, I do not think we can have good conditions for the animal and for the farmer with buildings that are 40. So we have to renew this park of buildings, yes ".
Good news for the sector, less good news for French consumers, because if pork is sold in China, there will be less in our markets, and prices will increase here too.