Paris (AFP)
Former Minister of Agriculture Stéphane Travert (LREM) calls for "dissuasive" sanctions for distributors violating the 2018 Food Act, which he says does not yet sufficiently protect the interests of producers as it should, in a forum published in the Journal du Dimanche.
In this text co-signed with the rapporteur for this so-called Egalim law, the deputy LREM Jean-Baptiste Moreau, he notes that "farmers are now struggling to see the concrete effects of the Egalim law" and considers it "urgent to put an end the price war that kills our agricultural model by making consumers believe that certain products can be free or at an abnormally low price. "
"The increase in the threshold for resale at a loss has not made it possible to restore the farmers' margins. The money sometimes seems to have gone astray, sometimes to have found the way of the loyalty cards of the big brands rather than that of the pockets of the peasants ", deplore the two deputies who recognize however some progress for the organic or dairy sectors.
The law was intended to overcome an untenable domino effect: the price war between the four major distributors in France pushed them to demand ever lower prices from their suppliers in the food industry, who themselves bought in turn the cheapest agricultural raw material possible from farmers at the end of the chain. They sell at a loss and cannot make a living from their work.
In the eyes of MM. Travert and Moreau, "Fear must change sides. It is no longer for the producer to fear for his future or for businesses to be subjected to the pressure of the price war. But for all those in the sector who abuse and make their profit on the back of both the producer and the consumer. "
To this end, "financial sanctions must be devised, stronger, more restrictive" and the DGCCRF (Directorate-General for Competition, Consumption and Fraud Prevention) must "strengthen its controls and impose dissuasive sanctions against 'for those who break the rules,' they write.
© 2019 AFP