France: mobilization of farmers, angry at low prices

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Farmers blocking the A47, Givors, south of Lyon, November 27, 2019. JEAN-PHILIPPE KSIAZEK / AFP

Hundreds of farmers converge Wednesday, November 27 to Paris, causing slowdowns on the edge of a day of demonstration throughout France, to increase the pressure on trade negotiations with the supermarket, at the call of the unions FNSEA and Young farmers.

The traffic was partially blocked on three highways around Lyon by farmers protesting against the deterioration of their economic situation, said the prefecture of region. Traffic was impossible on the A466 in the south-north direction, on the A6 in the north-south direction at Anse and on the A47 towards Lyon at La Madeleine. On this last point of blocking, about twenty tractors, three trailers loaded with tires and a few private cars blocked the tracks going towards the regional capital, under close supervision of nine buses of CRS. Convoys, departing at 6 o'clock from motorways around the capital, also approached Paris.

Large Farmers #Paris Tractors block the device until they get an interview with President Macron @ EmmanuelMacron #Sauvetonpaysan pic.twitter.com/c1A4GQxtEF

The main demand : the prices of products.- " Our distress is real. We ask to meet the president. We are ready to stay as long as it takes, "proclaimed the president of the FDSEA of Seine-et-Marne, Cyril Milard, the megaphone, in the procession approaching Paris. With this mobilization, farmers intend to express their distress at the economic difficulties that accumulate and the mistrust of some of the citizens. " Our main demand is on the competitiveness of farms and therefore on the construction of the price of our products, while commercial discussions with mass merchandisers are beginning ," said Guillaume Tailland, FDSEA director. of the Loire, present on the blockade of Givors, near Lyon.

The minister " supports " anger.- " I support the anger of farmers and this event, there is enough of this denigration, " assured the Minister of Agriculture Didier Guillaume Wednesday morning at the microphone of our colleagues Europe 1 On the farmers' side, the mobilization seemed strong. " In my group, we are 15 farmers, or 30% of the workforce of my local union of Val-d'Oise, which is huge as mobilization at home. This shows the plight and distress of farmers, "says Guillaume Moret, grain and market gardener, joined by telephone in his tractor on the road to Paris.

Mathieu Garnotel, who operates 130 hectares in the Marne, came with twenty other farmers to join Paris convoys. " Currently in the Marne, one in three operators is zero or deficit, and the previous year our revenues had decreased by 75 % compared to the average 2010-2014, because of the fall in prices, the elimination of quotas (sugar, NDLR) and increased loads (more expensive equipment and inputs, increased fees for diffuse pollution and the tax on nitrogen) , we are caught in a chisel effect , "explains he.

The Egalim Law " did not bear fruit " .- The so-called Egalim law, issued from the Estates General of Food and set up at the beginning of the year, was supposed to bring income back into the farm prices by rebalancing trade relations, but so far farmers say they do not really see any difference. " This law has not paid enough because the best distribution of value has not occurred, " also acknowledged the Minister of Agriculture. " We are halfway through this experiment. The law really takes effect now. Last year was year zero, trade negotiations had taken place without the law bearing fruit. But today is the beginning of new discussions, and there, it must pay, "he added.

( with AFP )