France: measures for the pig sector

Before the situation faced by the pig sector, the Minister of Agriculture of France, Mr. Stéphane Le Foll, met last week with the President of the National Pig Producers' Federation, Mr. Paul Auffray.

The Minister highlighted the efforts of his Ministry to open new export markets, especially in Asia. He also underlined his call for responsibility to all the actors in the sector, distributors, processers and packers, so they commit to give a fair compensation to the farmers, and that they bear it in mind during the negotiations that the distribution sector is now holding with its suppliers to agree on the supply contracts throughout 2015.

The Minister also asked the prefects of the different departments to gather, as soon as possible, an emergency unit for studying the liquidity problems of the operators in this sector, for coordinating the implementation of the national mechanisms for managing the crisis, and for calling up the banks so they offer help to the farmers.

Apart from the economic situation, the Minister and the pig producers' representatives discussed the means and long-term prospectives of the sector. Mr. Stéphane Le Foll said that the pig sector is subject to constant attention by the Government, whose aim is to improve its competitiveness and to provide it with means for its future development, including:

• Review of the environmental regulations in order to reduce bureaucracy.
• Support for the modernisation through the farm competitiveness and adjustment plan (PICS) that will be implemented this year
• Supports for the restructuring of abattoirs and cutting plants
• Reducing the operators' expenses through exemptions of the taxes to be paid to the social security system.