French farmers used tractors to block roads (Reuters)

Paris -

In an ongoing confrontation with the government, farmers' anger is still brewing at the gates of the French capital and the Rangis wholesale market, despite attempts by the executive authority to mitigate their discontent.

The siege of Paris began on Monday, when hundreds of agricultural tractors blocked the eight strategic roads leading to it, and after numerous attempts, some protesters were able to storm a storage area in the international market on Wednesday, which led to the arrest of 91 of them.

Ranges is the first fresh produce market in the world, the largest in Europe in terms of area, and the main center through which most food products pass to supply Paris and its suburbs.

Red line

During a press conference, Paris Police Director Laurent Nunez said, “There was damage, and it was an unannounced demonstration in Rangis, which is a red line for us, and the goal of the police detaining the farmers is to put an end to what happened.”

For his part, the engineer and expert in agricultural economics, Jean-Marie Sironi, in a comment to Al Jazeera Net, ruled out that things would get worse, and said, "We are not facing a guerrilla war."

He added that the executive authority allows farmers to demonstrate and express their anger for a few days, but they approached Rangis, a place that Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin warned not to touch; Because of its economic symbolism

Nunez continued, "The siege of the market will not lead to starvation of Paris. There are other ways, such as trains and other supplies, but the government ordered not to go there, and arrested some of them to say firmly that there is a limit to the protest that cannot be crossed."

It is noteworthy that this convoy of farmers came from the remote Ajin region and crossed neighboring roads and fields to avoid entering through the main roads, which are closely monitored by security forces, indicating that entering the capital may be a matter of time.

Since the beginning of the protests, the government announced that the issue of access to the Rangis International Market or obstructing its activity is one of the “red lines” that should not be crossed in any way.

A security point to inspect cars and trucks near the Rangis market, where the police stopped a convoy of farmers’ tractors (Al Jazeera)

For his part, economic analyst and agricultural economist, Thierry Foch, believes that it is not possible to predict what will happen in the coming days, but history indicates that France has witnessed many campaigns of farmer anger since the beginning of the 20th century, which in some cases led to acts of violence, and thus The goal of the Rangis siege may lead some to deviate from the protesters' primary goals.

He told Al Jazeera Net that matters will depend on what the government proposes and what the Council of Europe meeting concludes, especially regarding the free trade agreement with the Mercosur countries, Uruguay, Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil.

Market symbol

The Ranges market is considered a symbol of French agricultural production, as it supplies about 18 million French people with fresh products daily, according to the National Service Market.

The history of the market dates back to February 27, 1969, when the Halle de Paris closed its doors in the heart of the capital, Paris, eight centuries after its founding, moving its wholesale markets to the Val-de-Marne area under the name “Rangis.”

On an area estimated at about 234 hectares, or the equivalent of 315 football fields, this international market contains several different sections, including fruits, vegetables, seafood, meat products, dairy products, decoration and gardening.

Agricultural economist Foch says, “The Rangis market can feed the entire Ile-de-France region, meaning Paris and its suburbs, which is the least self-sufficient region, and depends on it a lot to supply stores, restaurants, grocery stores and weekly markets.”

Regarding the ongoing siege by farmers, Foch stressed that although major distributors say they have enough stock for about a week, the situation may worsen if the protests continue.

The "Samaris" company in charge of managing the market refused to comment to Al Jazeera Net on the matter, and its media official merely said that the market "is still working as usual and our stock has not yet run out."

Rangis attracts more than 26,000 regular buyers, including vegetable merchants, market sellers, and restaurants, and more than 13,000 employees work within it in more than 1,400 companies, according to Samaris.

The volume of goods that passed through the Ranges market reached 3 million tons during the year 2022, more than half of which were food products, and the number of visitors in the same year reached 6.4 million people, and its sales exceeded 10.3 billion euros, equivalent to 0.4% of the French gross domestic product, according to Same source.

Police arrested dozens of protesters after they stormed a storage area in the International Market (Al Jazeera)

Deep crisis

In 2022, agricultural production on the European continent reached about 552 billion euros, according to European Commission data, and France is the most productive with a 17% share of total production, followed by Germany, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands.

Despite this, the country's agricultural sector still suffers from obstacles that the years have not helped it overcome, due to high fertilizer prices that affected production costs and farmers' income, as well as the European Common Agricultural Policy, which introduced new regulations to ensure that agricultural production is more respectful of the environment and diversity. Biological, according to Thierry Foch.

“The Green Deal set by Brussels in 2019 worries about 42% of farmers in France, because it reduces the use of products such as pesticides or fertilizers by 50%,” Foch said.

He added, "The other way to explain the current anger is that the European Union no longer attaches the same importance to its agriculture."

As for agricultural engineer Sironi, he believes that the current crisis is not related to income; Because farmers have not been able to manage their affairs for 3 years, and the economic outlook for this year seems bleak, but farmers believe that they do not have the means to respond to everything that society demands of them, and this is the deep reason for what is happening, as he put it.

The percentage of workers in the agricultural sector in France decreased by 75% over 50 years. After representing more than 1.5 million farmers in 1970, their numbers will exceed 390,000 in 2022.

The agricultural sector also recorded 994 bankruptcies in 2022, an increase of 10.65 compared to 2021.

Source: Al Jazeera