French agricultural policy escorts food security

Grain and Oil Market News Zhu xing Yin Bijian 2013-08-24

france has always attached great importance to food security and food security. In recent years, with the reform of the EU's common agricultural policy and the rise of production costs, French agricultural production has increased production but not income, and its development has encountered bottlenecks. However, in order to improve the competitiveness of agricultural products, France has given priority to the modernization of agricultural energy and ecological agriculture, and the export income of agricultural products such as grain has maintained a growth trend.

French agriculture and food production hit a bottleneck

france is a traditional European agricultural country, but it is also facing the situation of declining number of farmers and sluggish agricultural development. This is mainly due to the reduction of EU subsidies to farmers after the implementation of the reform of the common agricultural policy (it has been reduced from 400 euro per hectare before the reform to 300 euro, and the subsidy per hectare of planting area will be reduced to 100 euro by 2013). Second, the rise in the price of energy and raw materials has led to the rise of production costs, and the profit of agricultural production is more meager. The French Ministry of Agriculture has pointed out that globalization, aging, climate change and energy are the four major challenges facing European agriculture.

France is Europe's largest grain exporter, and 1/2 of the grain produced is sold to countries in Europe and other continents. France is also the world's largest exporter of flour and beer malt. France is very rich in cereal varieties, including soft wheat, hard wheat, corn, barley, oats, sorghum, rye and rice. Since the summer of 2009, there has been a serious crisis in many areas of French agriculture. First, the price of fresh milk fell sharply under the pressure of insufficient demand, and many dairy farmers were forced to pour milk into rivers, leaving the dairy industry in trouble. Subsequently, the fruit and vegetable industry also encountered a crisis, and its picking cost was twice as high as that of Spain and other countries. In addition, the financial crisis reduced the demand for vegetables and fruits by the French people, and the French fruit and vegetable industry had a high yield but not a good harvest.

According to data from the French National Bureau of Statistics, the income of French farmers in 2009 fell 1/3 from the previous year. 2009 became the year with the largest decline in agricultural income in France in 50 years. In 2008, agricultural earnings fell by 20% from the previous year. French grain prices fell 25% in 2009. Since 2000, the agricultural population in France has been declining, decreasing by 2% to 3% every year, and the average income of farmers in 2009 and the income of farmers in the mid-1980s remained at the same level, but from 1980 to 2009, agricultural productivity has doubled. It is obvious that French agriculture has increased production but not income.

Agricultural Policy and Institutional Maintenance Food Production in France

1. French agriculture is highly dependent on subsidies.

As a member of the European Union, France adheres to the Common Agricultural Policy of the European Union. The common agricultural policy of the European Union maintains the price of agricultural products through huge subsidies at home and implements trade protection to safeguard the agriculture of EU member states. Data show that agricultural subsidies have always been the EU's most "money-burning" budget expenditure. In the EU's total budget of 106.6 billion euros in 2006, the common agricultural policy expenditure was as high as 49.8 billion euros, of which agricultural subsidies accounted for a large proportion.

In recent years, the EU has begun to limit the growth of common agricultural policy expenditure in order to make agricultural products more market-oriented and sustainable development. At the end of 2009, EU agriculture ministers reached a compromise on the reform of EU agricultural subsidies and other agricultural policies, the most important of which is that the amount of subsidies received by farmers is no longer determined by the amount of production. As a major agricultural country in the EU, France has always been the largest beneficiary of the EU's Common Agricultural Policy. It receives subsidies of nearly 10 billion euros per year, accounting for more than 1/5 of the EU's agricultural subsidies and nearly 10% of the EU's total fiscal expenditure. France has also been in favor of retaining the hefty EU farm subsidies. Nearly 80% of the income of French farmers comes from the agricultural subsidies provided by the state to farmers. The French government has always believed that the EU Common Agricultural Policy plays an important role in protecting the food security and diversity of the country and Europe. At the same time, it does not believe that the Common Agricultural Policy is trade protectionism. It believes that the current subsidies are decoupled from the output of agricultural products by 70% and belong to the World Trade Organization. In the category of green box policy, these subsidies will not affect trade and disrupt world markets.

2. Use of Agricultural Cooperative System to Promote Grain Circulation

agricultural cooperatives are operating cooperative organizations formed under the principle of voluntary and mutual benefit. Agricultural cooperatives are not enterprises in legal form and enjoy the government's preferential policies of exempting corporate tax (income tax) and providing low-interest loans. Due to the complete functions and services of agricultural cooperatives, farmers (including non-members) are more willing to sell grain to cooperatives in order to resolve market risks, obtain preferential prices and convenience, so agricultural cooperatives purchase most of the grain.

At present, there are more than 1000 units engaged in grain management in France, including more than 200 agricultural cooperatives and more than 800 grain merchants. Commercial grain accounts for the majority of France's annual grain output, about 5000 million tons per year, of which 62% is purchased by agricultural cooperatives and 34% by grain merchants.

3. Grain Export Association Helps Grain Exports

the French Food Export Association was established in 1997 by the French Food Industry Federation to promote the use of French food in the international market. It now has four offices outside France, including the Beijing office of the French Grain Export Association, which is responsible for China contacts.

The first task of the association is to promote the quality of French food and meet the needs of consumers. The main operational activities include seminars in countries importing French food, inviting customers, flour mill leaders and technicians to visit France, inviting foreign journalists to visit France, organizing technical training and dissemination of processing techniques, market research on the processing of wheat from French and other sources, experiments in the production of local food using French food, and establishing a cooperative network between the French food industry and the food industries of other countries. For example, the Beijing office publishes a twice-monthly China Letter, which collects statistics on China's grain production performance. From 2008 to 2009, the association mainly targeted China for the export promotion of French malting barley.

Government attaches importance to agricultural science and technology research and development

in 2009, the French Ministry of Agriculture announced ten core research priorities for agricultural research and development: promoting food supply and production beneficial to health and happiness; New livestock feeding food supply; Phytochemistry: replacing petrochemical synthetic molecules with plant molecules; Green energy: developing bioenergy; Natural and herbal fertilizer innovation; Diversified plants adapted to climate change; Double the value-added of seafood; Consumer agricultural products suitable for fast cooking; growing new products for sustainable grapes, trees and vegetables; packaging adapted to food safety.

First, France is currently making every effort to promote the modernization of agricultural energy. France believes that energy issues are the core of the new ecological and productive agricultural planting model in the future. In 2009, France launched an energy performance plan with the goal of reducing energy dependence on agricultural cultivation to 30% by 2013. France has also launched an "agricultural energy 2030 action" for agricultural development in the next 20 years ". The current French Minister of Agriculture Le Maire said in May this year that the government will invest 30 million million euros to help promote the modernization of agricultural energy in 2010. In 2005, the French agricultural sector consumed 9.2 million tons of oil equivalent, accounting for 5.7 per cent of France's final energy consumption. The French Academy of Agricultural Sciences believes that when oil prices reach $150, agricultural earnings will fall by at least 20%.

Second, vigorously promote the development of ecological crops. The "Ecological Plant Plan" launched by the French Ministry of Agriculture in 2007 has the goal of reducing the use of crop pesticides by half by 2018. At the end of 2006, the French government asked the French Academy of Agricultural Sciences to carry out a study to evaluate the model and actual effect of reducing the use of pesticides in crops by 50%. In 2010, the French Academy of Agricultural Sciences completed the study. The results of the study suggest that reducing pesticides by half is feasible, but it means a change in the agricultural production system.

Man of Feeding