When presenting this plan to the Agricultural centrethe Minister of Agriculture Marc Fesneau indicated that it would be financed thanks to the credits of the France 2030 plan for the year 2023. The State, he specified, has the will to invest an equivalent sum for the sector for several consecutive years.
For Laurent Grandin, president of the interprofession of fresh fruits and vegetables Interfel, this plan will make it possible to define “what will be the market gardening and arboriculture of tomorrow”, with the objective of “regaining 10% market share” within 10 to 15 years. Today, 60% of fruit and 40% of vegetables consumed in France are imported. “Below that, we enter a danger zone,” he explained to theAFP.
In detail, a quarter of the public funding announced will be devoted to arboriculture, to allow the purchase of protective nets once morest insects or hail in orchards, or to invest in weeding robots. Market gardening will benefit from an equivalent sum of 50 million euros which will be used in part to build greenhouses for vegetables. This “requires major investments but which will bear fruit very quickly”, assures Laurent Grandin. A third part of this endowment will be used to modernize equipment and “avoid impasses” on phytosanitary products for sectors such as the cherry which will suffer from the ban on the insecticide phosmet.
One of the objectives, in line with the Ecophyto 2030 plan announced Monday by Elisabeth Borne, will be to identify the phytosanitary products which might be banned in the coming years and to seek alternatives. A final section will be devoted to supporting research and encouraging the consumption of fruits and vegetables, lower than nutritional recommendations, in particular through food education programs in schools. “There is a political responsibility, a public health issue” to fight once morest obesity in children, especially “in the most disadvantaged areas”, underlined Laurent Grandin.
Less than half of adults consume 5 fruits and vegetables a day as recommended by health authorities, according to the ministry.
With AFP.
