“We cannot, under the price war, destroy the value of agricultural activity”, warns Arnaud Rousseau

2023-08-11 06:56:46

Yanis Darras
modified to

9:30 a.m., August 11, 2023

The new president of the FNSEA Arnaud Rousseau was the Alex Reed of Europe 1 Matin this Friday. At the microphone of Lionel Gougelot, the agricultural trade unionist calls not to reduce “the margin of operators”, while new negotiations with large retailers might take place soon, in order to lower prices on the shelves.

Almost empty shopping carts and customers who have their eyes riveted on the labels. In supermarkets, the continuous rise in prices for more than a year is pushing the French to reduce their consumption, especially of fruit and vegetables. While the boss of the Leclerc group, Michel-Edouard Leclerc, assured mid-July on Europe 1 that there will be no green September, the situation might however change in the coming months.

A long battle

Large retailers want to return to the negotiating table with their suppliers, to renegotiate lower prices, and thus relieve the portfolio of the French. An initiative widely desired by Bruno le Maire, Minister of the Economy, who has been calling for several weeks to make a gesture to lower prices on the shelves of supermarkets.

But at the microphone of Europe 1, the new president of the FNSEA Arnaud Rousseau warns: “there is no question that we come once once more to seek margin on our farms”. “We fought for ten years once morest the price war and we obtained through the laws the fact of sanctuarizing the agricultural material. (…) We cannot, under the price war, destroy the value of French agricultural activity and destroy jobs”, continues Arnaud Rousseau.

Bring customers back to the shelves

“It’s a red line,” says the president of the FNSEA. “On the other hand, we are aware that for a certain number of our compatriots, it is difficult to feed themselves. (…) But in any case, as regards agricultural production on our farms, it is not there is no question of going back on prices. I repeat, the margin of farmers is low and I also want to say here that the farmer is someone who works almost 60 hours a week, who invests many capital and who is of rather middle or even low income”. It is therefore impossible for him to ask the farmers for more effort.

It remains to be seen whether large retailers will hear this call, as they want to return to more accessible prices to bring customers back to the store.

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