Faced with farmers’ demonstrations and the crisis facing the agricultural sector, the president of the FNSEA Arnaud Rousseau affirmed his hostility to too many imports from Ukraine this Monday, January 29.
While farmers’ demonstrations continue in France and many roads remain blocked despite Prime Minister Gabriel Attal’s announcements last Friday, the FNSEA wanted to speak out this Monday, January 29. Through its president, Arnaud Rousseau, the first agricultural union notably targeted the French government and theUkraine. “I would like the Prime Minister to say that we are changing the software. That we are moving from a vision of agriculture which is decreasing to Brussels to a vision in which we reaffirm that producing to feed makes sense in France and everywhere else”, he indicated this Tuesday on RTL.
“Ukraine is a real agricultural subject”
Arnaud Rousseau emphasized the importance of the European dimension in farmers’ demands. “We need to continue to export, it is not a question of turning inward. But we ask for reciprocity for what we import. A Breton poultry breeder does not understand why his building will be affected by a directive on industrial emissions, while its Ukrainian competitors can accommodate a million chickens at the same time” he indicated this Monday, in an interview given to West France.
The strong man of the FNSEA particularly regrets the lack of traceability of foreign products. “Ukraine is a real agricultural subject. If it is to open European ports to allow Ukrainians to sell their goods, that does not pose a problem for us. If it is to welcome goods which destroy value of our European productions when it is produced according to standards which are not ours, it is not tenable” he regrets at the microphone of RTL. “Before the war, 20,000 tonnes of sugar were imported into Europe, at the moment 700,000 tonnes are imported”. An observation which, according to him, is not sustainable for sugar production in Europe.
Blockages “until we get answers”
On the other hand, Arnaud Rousseau reaffirmed his desire to “support the Ukrainians, and that it is normal for European ports to be open to their agricultural production so that it can transit to other countries” in the columns of West France. However, “Europe cannot be the receptacle of all this production. We need rules of engagement, with volumes that can enter our market, quotas. Especially since in Ukraine, many molecules are banned among us are still widely used” he concludes.
The highly flammable issue of Ukrainian imports could now lead unions and farmers to call for a continuation of the ongoing blockade operations. At least, “until we get answers to the questions we asked” says Arnaud Rousseau on RTL. On Thursday, heads of state will meet in Brussels to discuss, among other things, the role of the European Union in agriculture.