Illustration of a man walking in a flax field, here north of Rennes.
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C. Allain / 20 Minutes
It crosses the Atlantic Ocean to feed our animals.
For years, the massive use of soybeans produced in Brazil and Argentina has been the target of criticism.
Not very virtuous in ecological terms, the import system also makes French agriculture dependent on market prices located thousands of kilometers from its animals.
Risk.
In Brittany, three large groups have just announced the creation of an economic interest group (GIE) in order to reduce their protein dependence.
Eureden, a group born from the merger of Triskalia and the D'Aucy group, has joined forces with Valorex and Tromelin Nutrition, both specialists in animal nutrition to "build a plant production sector rich in protein".
“There is an alternative to buying foreign soybeans,” emphasizes Henri Tromelin, Managing Director of Tromelin Nutrition.
Brittany hyper dependent on imports
The group hopes to develop protein crops in Brittany to feed farm animals.
Currently, soybeans, field beans, peas and lupine only represent 0.6% of Brittany's agricultural surface.
The “granary of France” has the particularity of depending 95% on soybean imports from South America.
The figure is 45% nationally.
To develop a sector "which is profitable and whose model would be duplicated on the scale of the country", the group will put 225,000 euros per year on the table in addition to an initial investment of five million euros for the purchase of two industrial tools.
An alliance that will carry weight.
Eureden employs more than 9,000 people, brings together 20,000 farmers and had a turnover of more than three billion euros last year.
The Tromelin Nutrition company employs 110 people and Valorex 125 people.
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Breeding