Paris (AFP)
Farmers plan to demonstrate in tractors throughout France Wednesday, with blocking operations planned in Paris and Lyon, to increase the pressure on commercial negotiations with large retailers.
This new event, it is "for the efficiency of the States General of the food, and for the stop of the distortions French-French", explained to AFP Christiane Lambert, president of the FNSEA, trade union which calls the farmers to demonstrate with that of Young Farmers (JA).
The so-called Egalim law, issued from the General States of Food and set up at the beginning of the year, was supposed to bring income back to farm prices by rebalancing trade relations, but so far farmers say they do not really see of difference.
The protesters want to put pressure on supermarkets and its suppliers while just started the annual trade negotiations that set prices for one year.
"We want the distributors to play the game and do not do as Lidl did ten days ago, ground beef at 6.75 euros per kilogram, which is a deep scandal, it's like when Carrefour made the milk 0.87 euros in organic last year, "adds Christiane Lambert.
- "Ignorance of our profession" -
More than 1,000 tractors from the Hauts-de-France, Normandy, Ile-de-France, Grand-Est, Center-Val-de-Loire and Bourgogne-Franche-Comté regions are expected on Avenue Foch in Paris. Some trade union representatives critical of EU trade liberalization agreements that increase agricultural and food imports into France have asked to meet the President of the Republic.
"The main reason for anger is the feeling of being abandoned both by politicians and by society," explains Guillaume Moret, 49, who operates in the Val d'Oise, who will demonstrate Wednesday in his tractor because "he There is a lot of denigration of farmers by lack of knowledge of our profession.
"We want more and more clean farming and food, and we are importing more and more processed products." We have trouble finding it, "says 29-year-old Quentin Le Guillous. farmer in Houdan (Yvelines) who also leaves for Paris.
- 50 intrusions -
In Rhône-Alpes, farmers from all over the region have planned to block Lyon motorway access in three points: in the north (Limonest), in the south (Ternay) and in the east (Beynost). At each point, about fifty tractors should be positioned, according to FDSEA and JA.
The Minister of Agriculture Didier Guillaume said Tuesday in front of the Chamber that he shared the concerns of farmers who "are abused, who are blamed". "For ten months it's 50 intrusions on farms, in livestock buildings.This weekend again, three buildings burned, it is not acceptable!", Said the minister.
On the night of 22 to 23 November, three fires affected dairy farms in the sector of Romans-sur-Isere (Drôme), killing 30 cattle, according to the police. These fires have not been claimed yet.
In Auvergne, farmers will come from the four departments of Auvergne (Cantal, Puy-de-Dome, Haute-Loire and Allier) but also from the Loire and Creuse for an action in the morning on the A71 near Clermont-Ferrand.
Mobilisations are also planned in Toulouse and Vaucluse, which has planned a "day of mourning of Vaucluse agriculture".
"We had to be there, but it's not possible, there are people in distress, we have at least 200 farmers who have lost everything, house, farm and their salary for the year", explained for his Sylvain Audemard, FSDEA of Var, two days after the catastrophic floods that hit his department.
© 2019 AFP