Farmers demonstrate in a shopping center in Brittany -

20 Minutes

  • Farmers helped themselves to the shelves of the Carrefour supermarket in Cesson-Sévigné, near Rennes, before distributing the products free of charge to customers.

  • This action aims to put pressure on mass distribution in the context of annual negotiations with central purchasing bodies.

  • Other actions of the same type were organized in the four Breton departments on the initiative of the Young Farmers.

Annual negotiations have started between purchasing centers and mass distribution.

Always lively discussions that decide the price of a good part of the food products that you will find in supermarkets.

Started against the backdrop of a health crisis and declining purchasing power, these trade negotiations make farmers fear the worst.

“The first feedback we have is not good.

Large retailers are pushing for lower prices.

Thank you very much for having fed France.

But a thank you, that does not make a farm live, ”explains Jimmy Guérin, president of the Young Farmers of Ille-et-Vilaine.

This Friday morning, his union had therefore organized “punch” actions in the four Breton departments to “put pressure” on the signs in the sector.

In Ille-et-Vilaine, it is the Carrefour store in Cesson-Sévigné that saw the disembarkation of about twenty farmers from the department.

Equipped with three trolleys, they took the direction of the meat and dairy departments to fill them, taking care to cross out the bar codes with the marker.

“We only take French products.

We are not going to offer stuff that comes from abroad, ”says a breeder, throwing dozens of packets of grated cheese at the bottom of the cart.

Like his comrades, he demands "a better price" paid to farmers.

According to the JA, on a cart of 100 euros, only 6.50 euros go to producers.

Breton agriculture wants to initiate its transformation and "produce less" https://t.co/xr1FtV67Qg

- 20 Minutes (@ 20Minutes) December 3, 2020

A few minutes later, the packages of ham, roast beef and pork and tartiflette cheeses passed the cash register without a single cent being paid, in front of a resigned management.

“I can understand your action, but I am not the one negotiating.

The sale price, I can vary it but not the purchase price.

I buy from the central, ”tries to explain the store manager, before promising to“ bring up the complaints ”of the demonstrators.

Many of the customers were embarrassed to be given free products.

“They don't pay us.

So you don't have to pay either, ”sums up a breeder from the region facing a woman finishing races.

Direct sales to earn better

To protect themselves from the volatility of prices negotiated by supermarkets, more and more farmers are choosing to change their model.

This is the case of Matthias Canto, breeder of meat breeds in Andouillé-Neuville, north of Rennes.

Present on the shelves of the supermarket in support of his colleagues, the young farmer has long worked with the huge Breton slaughterhouses that are the SVA Jean-Rozé (subsidiary of Intermarché) or the Bigard empire (Charal brand in particular).

Tired of being poorly paid, he now works directly thanks to local markets and the excellent contact he has established with his butcher.

“I get away with 5 euros per kilo.

Before, I was four euros.

You can imagine the difference on a 400 kg beast, ”he slips.

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  • breeder

  • Supermarket

  • Consumption

  • Agriculture

  • Farmers

  • Large distribution

  • Society

  • 20 minutes video