France determined to set up effective measures to manage markets

French President Mr. Nicolas Sarkozy once again denounced ‘the lack of European and global regulations’ in the strategically important agricultural sector, during a visit to Poligny (Jura) on October 27 last. He announced a 1.6 billion euro support plan to help farmers through the crisis that is battering them, repeatedly insisting that these current anti-slump measures were only the first stage. ‘For the past ten years agriculture has been convulsed by a series of crises: BSE in 2000, the wine industry crisis in 2001, drought in 2003, the fruit and vegetable industry crisis in 2004, the dairy industry crisis in 2005, bird flu in 2006, and then the current pork industry crisis since 2007,’ he stated. ‘And the response to each crisis over the past thirty years has been to set up crisis support plans, none of which have done anything to ward off future crises.’

Whilst it is regrettable that the French President failed to make any concrete proposals about new regulatory measures, the degree of political will is most welcome. The amount of money the French State has set aside for the farming support plan shows it is determined to draw on all available resources. It is only to be hoped that this will also result in the devising and implementing of genuine solutions to control price fluctuations in agricultural markets.