2024-01-30 18:17:00
“The control of these industries over the market allows them to impose their conditions on producers, but also to use their power to influence consumption practices, since they are the ones who decide what they put on the shelves and at what price”, estimates the organization. “Inflation has plunged many operators and millions of consumers into unbearable precariousness, while in the middle, the giants of the agri-food industry and mass distribution generate opaque margins and accumulate indecent profits” , continues the organization, which recalls that in two years, inflation has caused food prices to rise by more than 20%.
Farmers’ discontent: sincere support, but not without limits
“The gross margin of the agri-food industry increased from 28 to 48% between the end of 2021 and the second quarter of 2023: a historic level. That of mass distribution has also increased in certain essential sections such as pasta, vegetables and even milk. The incomes of farmers or consumers have of course not followed this same dizzying curve”.
Foodwatch also highlights the role of competition with imported foods. “Free trade agreements dump tons of imported products onto the market that do not meet the same standards. One of the excesses of these trade agreements is to increase the quantities of agricultural and food products imported into the EU and the social and ecological impact of these imports, in the producing countries as well as here. This is of course particularly the case with the EU-Mercosur agreement (livestock, GMO soya etc.) but also for example with the EU-New Zealand agreement ratified at the end of 2023, which provides for large import quotas which will see meat , cheeses, onions, apples, wines, etc. cross the oceans,” deplores the NGO.
Farmers’ demonstration: “I am not surprised that there is resentment and that we manage to heckle Minister Tellier”
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