The general meeting of Felcoop, the federation of fruit and vegetable cooperatives, which brings together more than 200 cooperatives across France, had a special flavor this year. A few weeks earlier, the sector finally got its head above water, when the Minister of Agriculture, Marc Fesneau, announced at the beginning of March, on the occasion of the agricultural show, the launch of a plan of food sovereignty concocted for several months with the main French federations. And it is again in Paris, on Wednesday April 26, in the premises of Crédit Agricole, that the players in French arboriculture and market gardening met in large numbers at the call of Felcoop. Aware of the expectations of the sector and with the intention of ensuring the after-sales service of his plan, Marc Fesneau had promised to come in person.
The arrival of the tenant from rue de Varenne had been kept secret, at least from the general public, so as not to provoke a new concert of pans. While waiting for the minister, on the faces of the farmers, we can sense both hope and concern. It must be said that the sector is going through one of its worst periods for 50 years. The rate of self-sufficiency in fruit – excluding exotics – and fresh vegetables – excluding potatoes – in France fell from 73.8% in 2000 to 59.2% in 2020.
The situation is particularly worrying for the production of French apples and organic orchards. “This year, the harvest is very good. Despite this, there have been imports of Polish apples. At the same time, the centrals are fighting every day to lower prices. We produce twice what the consumer buys “, sighs Françoise Roch, president of the national federation of fruit producers. A precarious situation which has worsened with the war in Ukraine and the surge in inflation.
Imported products overshadow French vegetables and fruits
Direct consequence: the French, constrained by the rise in prices, have abandoned French fruits and vegetables to refer to imported products. “You take the Moroccan tomato versus the French tomato, whether it is from the southwest, from Brittany, produced outdoors or in greenhouses, you have price differences that are unbeatable”, illustrates Sébastien Abis, researcher at the Iris and director of Club Demeter, a think tank. After the general meeting behind closed doors, a debate on food sovereignty, of course, was organised. On several occasions, the word competitiveness comes out of the mouths of the speakers. The figures speak louder than ever. Marc Kerangueven, president of Sica Saint-Pol-de-Léon, a vegetable cooperative in Finistère, takes up recent data from the Légumes de France association: “Our problem today is the distortion of the cost of labor in Europe. The Netherlands is close to us but Italy and Spain show costs lower by 37% and 36% respectively than those of France. Germany (-11%) and Belgium (-24%) also outdistances us”.
A significant gap that the sector is struggling to compensate for. This is where the problem lies. “If you are looking to reduce your production costs, you will always find a competitor who will do better than you. The policy must tend towards a qualitative strategy”, estimates Thierry Pouch, chief economist of the Chambers of Agriculture of France. A credo hammered home by Emmanuel Macron in 2017 during the “call from Rungis” and repeated over and over since. “The Head of State had set a target for upgrading. He told the farmers: make contracts and your upgrading will pay you your expenses. Except that the opposite happened, not only because he had a bad strategy, but because events proved him wrong”, curries the president of Felcoop, Jean-Michel Delannoy.
Another grievance: administrative constraints. “To know them a little, farmers often complain about the regulations. It is not always easy to respect them. The French administration tends to over-regulate”, explains Thierry Pouch. The desire to reduce the use of phytosanitary products is no stranger to this. “You have to keep in mind that part of this regulation is part of environmental protection. You have to try to reconcile certain flexibility to let producers produce while making them understand that it is do not use too many inputs and pesticides”, continues Thierry Pouch.
How to reverse the trend?
The two major challenges remain to convince French consumers to favor French production and for producers to regain momentum internationally. So how do you reverse the trend? For Senator Laurent Duplomb (Les Républicains), the equation is simple: “In France, there are two types of consumers: those who have the means to pay for the food that makes them happy and the others, who are more more and more condemned to consume only imported products, because of their loss of purchasing power”. The elected representative of Haute-Loire and farmer in Saint-Paulien carried out an information report last year on the competitiveness of French agriculture, with his colleagues Pierre Louault (UDI) and Serge Mérillou (Socialist group, Ecologist and Republican). The observation is clear: “France is one of the only major agricultural countries whose market shares are declining: it has gone from second to fifth world exporter in twenty years”. Laurent Duplomb has just tabled a bill in the Senate which aims to “create a shock of competitiveness” for French agriculture. It will be examined in session on May 16, before a solemn vote scheduled for May 23.
French production is indeed struggling. “Today, if everyone ate five fruits and vegetables a day in France, market gardeners and arboriculturists would not be able to meet demand. If tomorrow we want five fruits and vegetables for everyone, we must provide the means productive to answer this question”, advances the researcher Sébastien Abis. In the space of 20 years, vegetable areas have decreased by 10% and fruit crops by 7%. And French products do not find takers. Thierry Pouch believes that the solution is to be found on the side of local authorities: “We must ensure that there is a connection between national production and the collective outlet: company restaurants, retirement homes, canteens schools… The government could trigger a positive dynamic, by very strongly encouraging local authorities to supply themselves with French fruits and vegetables. This could be very localized in certain regions”.
The food sovereignty plan expected at the turn
In the meantime, fruit and vegetable producers are betting everything on the government’s plan, which is mobilizing 200 million euros in four main areas: crop protection, competitiveness, research and innovation, and finally boosting consumption. French fruits and vegetables. A long-term job that required several months of consultation between the profession and the departments of the ministry, recalls Laurent Grandin, president of the interprofession of fresh fruits and vegetables Interfel. “We arrived at a compromise which seems to us to give a perspective to French arboriculture and market gardening”.
The less and less powerful French farm
© / Dario Ingiusto / L’Express
Marc Fesneau confirms, after a committed, but tempered speech, before the general assembly: “This is not the government’s plan, but that of the government and the sector. And that is good news. Everyone world has appropriated it”. This is spread over a period of 13 years until 2035 with a clear but ambitious objective: “Gain five points of fruit and vegetable sovereignty by 2030 [NDLR : cinq points de pourcentage de la part d’auto-approvisionnement] and trigger a trend increase of 10 points by 2035”. And what about execution? “We must not confuse speed with haste. What is important is to structure the sector and that people grasp the subject. We need to do multi-year, to show right away that we are moving forward, while also explaining that we are on the medium long term”, underlines Marc Fesneau.
Generations of farmers to renew
The stakes are high because the problem of the renewal of generations is approaching faster than we think. And to attract young people, you need solid arguments. “We have an attractive profession. Young people will only be convinced if France is competitive. Thanks to the plan and the structuring of the sectors, we will see the vital forces we need arrive”, wants to believe Jean-Michel Delannoy. However, newcomers should not present the classic profile of the son or daughter taking over the farm from their parents. Rather, they should come from different backgrounds. “We don’t want what happened to industry to happen to agriculture. By announcing to young people that there are long-term funded plans, in which the vocational sector and the ministry believe, while promising a accompaniment, it changes the reading”, abounds Laurent Grandin.
Farmers must also take into account a fact that is more present than ever in the public debate: adaptation to climate change. In April 2021, the most important episode of frost for 30 years sounded like a detonator. Episodes that should multiply in the future. On the educational level, the actors of the sector agree on the fact that it is necessary to change mentalities on the question of the price of fruits and vegetables: “Everyone must understand that to send a vegetable from a field or a greenhouse in a store, there are costs”, plague Marc Kerangueven. A balance will have to be found and quickly. “The fair price of food today and even more tomorrow, explains Sébastien Abis, is the price that will be good for everyone’s health, the health of the planet and the economic health of agricultural producers”.