Anger is brewing in the agricultural world, forcing the government to pull out the checkbook. An “emergency plan” of 270 million euros will thus be implemented to support the pork sector, announced Monday the Minister of Agriculture, Julien Denormandie. “On the one hand you have charges that are increasing and on the other side you have prices that are falling, which are deeply weakened,” said the minister. This scissor effect, as it is called, leads to an absolutely worrying situation for many pig farms. »
It is a question of “consolidating the cash flow of our pig farmers”, added Julien Denormandie after a meeting with professionals in the sector, who had been mobilizing for several weeks, particularly in Brittany. The executive’s plan includes a first component which must be “paid in the coming weeks”, namely “emergency aid of 75 million euros” for breeders short of cash.
Breeders in the grip of “an unprecedented crisis”
A second more significant part, of 175 million, should intervene in a second time, once obtained the approval of the European Union. The objective is that this aid “can arrive in farmyards during the month of April, at the latest at the beginning of May”. Producers will finally benefit from exemptions from charges of up to 20 million euros.
The minister repeatedly considered that this was an “unprecedented crisis”, “probably one of the most serious crises experienced by the pork sector for many years now”. Last week, the pork interprofession Inaporc called for “urgent state support”, to absorb the some “440 million euros in losses” suffered by breeders in the sector in one year.