More than €700 million: France's trade deficit in fruit and vegetables widens

Romain Rouillard / Photo credit: SVEN HOPPE / DPA / DPA PICTURE-ALLIANCE VIA AFP 11:00 am, May 16, 2023

If the France kept its agricultural trade balance in the green in 2022, it owes it much more to its wines and cereals than to its fruits and vegetables. Because in this area, the France imports at arm's length and posted a trade deficit of 744 million euros in 2022 (against 640 million in 2021) according to figures published by the High Commission for the Plan on Foreign Trade. Most tomatoes, eggplants and zucchini sold in France come from Spain, Morocco but also from Germany or the Netherlands. For its part, France exports little and the soaring production costs observed in recent months - consequence, among others, of the war in Ukraine - is not likely to change the situation.

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This increase in the price of raw materials certainly affects all European countries, but to varying degrees. "In Spain, they have lower fees than ours in France," confirms Enzo Demichelis, a vegetable producer in Les Baux-de-Provence in the Bouches-du-Rhône. Not to mention the differences in phytosanitary standards that may exist between two countries. The same product can be authorized in Morocco but banned in France, forcing French operators to adapt, at greater expense.

Foreign fruits and vegetables benefit from inflation

In addition, Spain benefits from a much cheaper workforce, says Anne-Sophie Alsif, chief economist at BDO France. All these factors allow the competition to display particularly attractive prices on fruit and vegetables. And to seduce French consumers whose purchasing power has considerably eroded in the space of a year during which food prices have jumped by 16%. "People are paying more and more attention and are referring to Spanish or Moroccan products which are cheaper," confirms Anne-Sophie Alsif. And too bad for French fruits and vegetables, yet of better quality.

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And producers have no choice but to live with this reality. "We are not in an administered economy. We are in an open market so the state does not have to intervene in it. It is the law of supply and demand that operates," says Anne-Sophie Alsif. A balance of power unfavorable to the France that Enzo Demichelis also attributes to the economic crisis of 2008 during which producers were no longer able to make recipes. "At the time, many stopped and there was no changeover. The passion was not transmitted. There is therefore a lack of producers in France," says the operator.

"Land prices are taking off"

Fifteen years later, it is the cost of installation, which has become prohibitive, that is also a problem. "The price of land is taking off. Today, it is almost impossible for a producer to set up without a large amount of state aid. You already have to have a family that owns land," Demichelis said. But faced with this a priori very gloomy picture, this operator refuses to fall into the complaint. "There are many French people who are to the nearest cent. So I understand that they choose a Spanish zucchini that will be cheaper. I don't have a problem with it as long as I find myself in it financially. On the other hand, if one day I can no longer sell my goods and I see tons of foreign zucchini arrive without problem in France, then it will not go anymore, "he warns.

A situation that can occur when climatic hazards disrupt the harvest of a fruit or vegetable in France. Quantities collapse and these products then see their prices soar. Supermarkets thus pass on these additional costs to shelf prices and local producers are penalized compared to their European counterparts who would not have experienced the same weather misfortunes and who can thus sell their goods much more easily. "There have been abuses in the past but I think it's over," Demichelis said.