To defuse farmers’ anger, Paris announced on Friday (26 January) that it would step up controls and impose penalties on manufacturers and distributors who fail to comply with the national laws protecting farmers’ incomes.

As protests intensify across the country, Agriculture Minister Marc Fesneau and Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire announced that manufacturers and supermarkets would have to comply scrupulously with the legislation on fair trade practices in the food supply chain, known as EGalim.

The move follows the German government’s initiative to put the market power of supermarkets and the food industry under scrutiny.

Three EGalim laws were passed in France between 2018 and 2023. In particular, they require operators to take account of the increase in production costs for farmers (raw materials, energy, etc.) during trade negotiations.

The latest EGalim law, voted in March 2023, goes further by imposing a limit on promotions for distributors (34% maximum). The cost of agricultural raw materials such as meat and milk can no longer be negotiated.

“No other nation in Europe provides the same legal protection for producers as France,” said Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire.

Laws not implemented

However, in July 2022 a French Senate information report noted that that the EGalim law was far from being applied, had “only very partially achieved its objective”, and the returns to farmers “seemed non-existent”.

“There are circumventions, the law is not respected, there is double talk”, said Marc Fesneau, the French minister for agriculture.

One of the problems raised by the minister is that French distributors go through central purchasing agencies located outside France to circumvent the law. In 2016, for example, Leclerc joined the German group Rewe in the only European purchasing alliance Eurelec Trading.

“From next week, I will be sending all manufacturers and distributors in breach of the law an injunction to comply with the law. If they fail to do so, they will be penalised to the tune of 2% of their turnover. I will be uncompromising in my strict and total respect for the law,” warned Le Maire.

EU tools

In 2019 the EU adopted a directive on unfair trading practices in the food chain. EU countries were required to transpose the directive into national law by 1 May 2021. But the EU capitals were slow to adopt the new rules, pushing the Commission to open an infringement procedure.

Another tool to correct imbalances in the food supply chain is provided by the Common Market Organisation (CMO) regulation, a legislation of the Common Agriculture Policy that also enables European producers, under conditions, to control prices and volumes placed in the market.

The German government is considering using Article 148 of the CMO, under which the government requires all contracts in the milk sector to be in writing and to contain regulations on price, volume, and duration.

Calling Brussels

Farmers’ protests are growing in Belgium too. The Walloon association of young farmers (FJA) met with Belgian minister of agriculture David Clarinval on Friday. They brought three tractors with them and threatened further mobilisation.

“Weeks are going to be very long,” warned FJA President Florian Poncelet, who suggested that 200 tractors could enter Brussels next week. Protests could spread into the EU capital on Thursday (1 February), the same day when EU leaders are meeting for a special EU summit to discuss the bloc’s budget.

Spain-France tension

Nationwide protests have escalated this week in France, with blockades stretching nearly 400 kilometres across southern France and into Spain on Friday morning. On Thursday, French farmers dumped and set fire to Spanish truckloads of fruits and vegetables, triggering the reaction of the Spanish MEP Clara Aguilera.

“French and Spaniards are part of the same single market,” Aguilera said, adding that “it is unacceptable that goods from any member state (…) are called ‘products from other countries’”.

Aguilera accused the French authorities of “not taking measures” to prevent the attacks. “We are going to ask the European Commission to take action.”

[Edited by Zoran Radosavljevic]

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