The expression––published in Le Figaro to define the situation of farmers in France––is truly the right one: The publication by the Ministry of Agriculture of the 2009 farming estimated accounts shows that average income for the 400,000 French farms dropped by 32 percent. And one has to take into account that these 32 percent are coming in addition to the 20 percent income cut experienced in 2008 over 2007. Consequently, the net income for each farm plummeted to the current €14,600 from €22,500 in 2007, and profits are at their lowest level in the past 19 years.
The problem lies with the collapse of prices on international markets. Not a single agricultural production is spared by the decline in prices, even if some suffer more than others: Dairy farmers have seen their net income drop by 54 percent in a single year, closely followed by fruit growers (53 percent) and by grain producers (51 percent).
Published just before the next January 13 Council of Ministers that will examine the agricultural modernization law, these figures must imperatively sound the death knell for the European deregulation policies of the past 10 years. No economic activity can reasonably withstand such income variations. These numbers thus confirm the need to regulate agricultural markets to enable the sector responsible for food security to grow without the risk to see its long-term survival questioned by price hyper-volatility. |