The operation was intended to be discreet. In 2015, the Chinese company Reward bought 1,700 ha of agricultural land in Indre, then 900 others in Allier, with a view to opening 1,500 bakeries in China supplied with French flour, a guarantee of quality. Since Reward went bankruptreported Agence France Presse in the summer of 2019.
However, these transactions have brought to light the question of who owns agricultural land in France. The answer ? She’s still so hard to get, sorry Land of Links. This is the first problem pointed out by the association which helps the installation of young farmers in a report published on Tuesday.
The image of Epinal of the owner farmer
In 1977, Edgar Pisani, former Minister of Agriculture, was already alarmed by this lack of transparency, recalls Coline Sovran, advocacy officer at Terre de Liens. “The situation has changed little or not at all since then. The last survey on the ownership of agricultural land in France dates back to 1992, when this should be central information for steering our agricultural policies. »
One certainty: the farmer who owns his land increasingly comes under the image of Epinal. “Only 35% of cultivated land today belongs to the farmers who work it, reframes Coline Sovran. The remaining 65% – ie 16 million hectares – are leased to them by third parties. The latter retain major decision-making powers. “They are the ones who choose whether or not to entrust their land to farmers and who determine the conditions”, recalls the report. De facto, this gives them some control over the use made of this land: are they used to install new farmers or to expand existing farms? To produce food or something else? To do organic or not?
Firms, a new player in property?
Hence the importance of better defining the profile of these owners. Among these, Terre de Liens observes the emergence of a new actor*: financialised agricultural companies. “They now control 14% of French agricultural land, including 640,000 ha in direct tenure, that is to say in property”, specifies Coline Sovran. It distinguishes these financialized companies other farming companies” as joint farming groups (Gaec) where the Farms with Limited Liability (EARL) “. “The latter are made by and for the farmers, and guarantee, by their statutes, that these companies remain in the hands of the farmers, she compares. This safeguard jumps in the financialized companies, in particular by allowing companies, nonagricultural, to enter the capital, even to take control of it. »
Reward is just one example. Terre de Liens cites other large companies that have acquired agricultural land in recent years**. ” Theset Euricom (leading European group in rice trading) which owns 1,300 ha of rice in the Camargue, Chanel and L’Oréal who buy land at exorbitant prices to produce their perfume plants in the Alpes-Maritimes, or even Auchan and its more than 800 hectares of land acquired through of its property France “, quotes the report. But Terre de Liens above all evokes the Altho group, producer of Bret’s crisps, mainly from its factory near Pontivy (Morbihan).
Altho and Bret’s crisps, a textbook case in Brittany?
Laurent Cavard, CEO of Altho, is amazed. “Once cleaned, we have an obligation to recover the water used in the manufacturing process of our crisps,” he says. We thus built an irrigation network that we offered to farmers near our factory. When they retired, finding no successors, they came to see us. This is how Altho says he became the owner of three farms, which exploit 135 ha of land, including 80 owned by the group. “Either 0.004% of Breton agricultural land***, tempers Laurent Cavard. We do not produce potatoes there and these acquisitions are only intended to secure this irrigation network. The last one is in 2020 and we don’t plan any more. »
But more than the surfaces acquired, Terres de Liens pinpoints above all the way of doing things. “These farms were first transformed into Civil Society of Agricultural Exploitation (SCEA), which allows entry into the capital of Altho, describes the association. The latter takes over the management of the company, then the shares of the operating partners are finally transferred to him, making the group the owner of the farms and agricultural land. “A typical case of the arrangements made by these agri-food firms, deplores Tanguy Martin, also in charge of advocacy at Terre de Liens. “They make it possible to escape the control ofe la Safer, the land policeman in France whose mission is to direct land sales in France towards new installations and nourishing agriculture, he explains. A parallel market is thus emerging through which at least 200.00 ha of land now pass each year. »
A boulevard for this “firm agriculture”?
It is then as many farms that pass under the nose of young farmers and who very often go to intensive agriculture, fears Terre de Liens. “These financial companies rarely seek to feed their territory, but turn to field crops [céréales pour Altho par exemple], industrialize agricultural practices and participate in the deskilling of the profession by replacing farm managers with employees, regrets Tanguy Marin. We are running counter to the objectives set out in our agricultural policies. »
For the association, it is urgent to act. “Half of the agricultural land is owned by people who are over 65 today,” recalls Coline Sovran. Thirteen million hectares could therefore change hands in the next ten years, at the very moment when a massive retirement of farmers is looming. “Leaving these lands to “corporate agriculture” is not the only option, assures Terre de Liens. 20,000 young people also come each year to the “Point d’accueil installation”, the gateway for promoters of agricultural projects. “And many have great difficulty finding land,” pointed out the association, just a year ago. Since Emmanuel Macron announced, for this year, a far from agricultural orientation on the renewal of generations. “She is currently in discussion”, notes Coline Sovran, It remains to be seen whether she will be up to it. In its report, Terre de Liens makes a whole series of recommendations, starting with that of ensuring greater transparency on land ownership in France.