“We don’t want to experience what textiles experienced”: the world of livestock farming, meeting until Thursday in Rennes, is worried regarding the decline in French production of milk, meat and eggs, and fears cascading company closures.
In the aisles of the international animal production exhibition (Space), near Rennes, the livestock ecosystem (cooperatives, equipment manufacturers, animal feed manufacturers, technical advisors, etc.) has a jargonous term to describe its crisis existential: “decapitalization”in other words the drop in the number of heads.
The contraction of the herd “reaches levels such that production declines, whether at the level of milk collection (down 4.7% at the start of 2023 compared to the five-year average) or slaughterings (volumes down 4% between 2021 and 2022 for cattle)”underline the chambers of agriculture.
However, this drop in production threatens the sustainability of slaughterhouses and dairies.
“We are changing the world, dairy resources will become a real subject” as supply declines, “this will lead to restructuring” therefore “business closures” et “territories that are emptying”anticipates Pascal Le Brun, Normandy breeder and president of the organization which defends the interests of dairy cooperatives.
For beef, “It seems terribly wrong and I don’t know how we’re going to be able to stop the bleeding”declared Jean-Paul Bigard last week, boss of the group of the same name (Charal and Bigard brands, in particular), French leader in beef and pork processing.
At its congress, the union of slaughtering and cutting companies Culture Viande also assumed its “share of responsibility” in the decline in livestock numbers – purchase prices have long been insufficiently remunerative for cattle breeders.
The risk is “let everything fall like a house of cards”reports to AFP Jean-Michel Schaeffer, free-range chicken breeder in Alsace and president of the Anvol poultry inter-professional association.
Mathieu Courgeau notes the “crisp” and the “fear” actors facing the disruption of the current model. “They can’t find people to set up pigsties and chicken coops”observes this dairy farmer from Vendée and co-president of the Nourrir collective, which brings together around fifty organizations (Greenpeace, Peasant Confederation, Action Against Hunger, etc.) for an overhaul of the agricultural and food system.
France remains the leading beef producer in the EU
The profession is trying to develop a less dismal discourse to encourage vocations as the agricultural population ages. One in two dairy farmers will retire in the next ten years.
“The industry has a bit of a problem saying that things are going well, but yes, the industry is getting better”says Marie-Andrée Luherne, milk producer at the head of the Morbihan section of the majority union FNSEA.
“My three sons are living with me, we have business manager responsibilities, we work outside (…) with a link to life”she argues.
“We need to have companies that send the message that we believe in breeding. (…) We don’t want to experience in breeding what we experienced in textiles with the flight to China”defends Philippe Manry, general manager of the French leader in farm animal feed Sanders (Avril group).
Of the “passionate” might be dissuaded from becoming breeders by hearing that “breeding is ruined” while “This is not the case”insists the manager.
Drawing a parallel with the lack of teachers and caregivers, the president of the Breton cooperative of Gouessant Thomas Couëpel pleads for “let us transform a difficult, thankless, poorly paid job into an easy, rewarding and well-paid job, and then there will be people”.
For this, he believes, it will take exploitation projects “viable”often “industrial size” to serve the needs of the French and make life easier for breeders: a large breeding farm generates more income, makes it possible to work in groups and reduce constraints.
For the moment, France remains the leading producer of beef in the EU, the second for milk and the third for pork. The country also remains on the podium for eggs, even if production has declined with the avian flu.
