what we know about this measure, desired by the executive, which is controversial

Floor prices “will make it possible to protect agricultural income and not give in to all the most predatory practices which today are sacrificing our farmers and their income”, argued Emmanuel Macron on Saturday from the Agricultural Show. On paper, the measure would therefore put out the main fire of agricultural anger. However, the statement by the President of the Republic did not ease tensions, and even added fuel to the fire. But then what do these floor prices correspond to and why are they causing controversy? Le Figaro make the point.

According to Emmanuel Macron, these “floor price” should be based on indicators determining what it costs a farmer to produce a kilogram of beef or a thousand liters of milk. These indicators could be “opposable” in negotiations between food stakeholders. Today, the regulations in force laid down by the Egalim laws already oblige the inter-professions, these organizations bringing together producers, industrialists and distributors, to develop a production cost indicator which makes reference. All with a significant degree of freedom. The executive hears “empower each inter-profession to make their reference indicator the reference for agricultural contracts”, detailed this Monday morning Agnès Pannier-Runacher on the set of Public Sénat. Because if the Egalim laws already carry the same idea, “That’s not enough”recognized the Minister Delegate to the Minister of Agriculture and Food Sovereignty.

“It’s a Soviet system thingâ€

Shortly after the announcement of the President of the Republic, La France insoumise hastened to pull the cover towards its party, which had already tabled a similar proposal in the National Assembly. François Ruffin, deputy for the Somme, declared on X (ex-Twitter) that “For six years, we have been demanding it from the National Assembly. Very alone, at first, then winning over the minds, the Macronists and the right who resisted. This is the big choice today, for everything and everywhere, medicine, housing, electricity, let the market take its course or regulate it, control it, hinder it? »

But for the Minister of Agriculture, invited Sunday morning on CNews, the government’s proposal differs from that of LFI: “LFI’s proposal was: floor price, fixing of margins, price control by the government, not quite what we said yesterday”. “LFI proposed, if I remember correctly, the fact that at the start of the year, the government decides on a fixed price, for example the price of milk… ‘is 1.20 euros per liter (for consumers), that’s something of the Soviet system’. Olivia Grégoire, the Minister of Consumer Affairs, also denounced measures last year reminiscent of “Cuba or the Soviet Union with the successes we know of them”. “You do this in 2022, at the start of the year you don’t have the war in Ukraine, you say that the price is 1.20 euros and then we don’t hold account of inflationary issues »points out Marc Fesneau.

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The government therefore wishes ‘working on something within our borders […] and bring this up to the European level”. This floor price “must be based on production costs” producers, according to the Minister of Agriculture. “It is not because the fight is difficult that it should not be fought”, adds Marc Fesneau, in a confident tone. But for the other parties, in particular the right, this fight should be forgotten, if we are to believe the president of the Republicans, Bruno Retailleau: “It’s a very bad idea promoted in particular by LFI [qui comporte] two traps: it will be a universal agricultural minimum income, a socialist idea, and the floor price will become a market price in Egalim (the law which governs producers’ income, Editor’s note) . In the diversity of regions and farms, the gaps will widen. We’re walking on our heads!”

“A boon for large farmers”

An observation shared by other specialists, such as Christian Gollier, director of Toulouse School of Economics: “The floor price is above all a boon for large farmers, especially if it is estimated at the average cost of small farms. Ineffective productivist policy par excellence. How can the left support this? For Philippe Goetzmann, mass distribution expert, “A floor price guarantees a price, a piece of paper. It has never guaranteed a volume, which is what makes the turnover: “Price times volume†. A floor price when you are not competitive is the guarantee of a fall in volumes, therefore your choice [on va parvenir] At the end of agriculture or the closing of borders ».

Others wonder about the calculation of this floor price. “The risk is that there are as many floor prices as there are types of breeding. We see this with the beef sectors. Within the framework of the Egalim law, contracting with companies is difficult because the sectors have not agreed on the criteria for production costs.comes under Parisian Anne-Catherine Loisier, centrist senator from Côte d’Or. For Sébastien Poutreau, cereal grower and administrator of the FNSEA, “It starts with a good intention but it will quickly become smoke and mirrors. How to set this floor price? Between a milk producer who farms in the mountains and the other in the plains, the costs are not the same. Which one do we choose? » The question is simple to decide for Anne-Catherine Loisier: “If the administered prices are too high compared to international prices, we will no longer export. And imports will increase.”.