The Mayor wants more competitive fruits and vegetables
Eric de LaChesnais
22 / 09 / 2009 | Updated: 22: 50 | 4 Comments | Add to selection
He advocates a reduction in employer charges of around two euros for seasonal workers.
The meeting had been set in early August between the Minister of Agriculture and those responsible for the fruit and vegetable sector in the midst of a collapse in prices and amid crisis funds. The working group met as planned this Tuesday rue de Varenne in Paris to work on solutions allowing French products to be more competitive with our European neighbors. Among these is a reduction in employer costs of almost two euros to lower the cost of seasonal labor, currently from 12 euros in France, to less than 10 euros. For comparison, these amount to 6 euros in Germany, 7 in Spain or 8 in Italy. “A drop of 2 euros would be a high cost for the state, the equivalent of several tens of millions of euros. A measure which will have to be arbitrated in any event by the Prime Minister or the President of the Republic ”, explains the Minister of Agriculture Bruno Le Maire.
The three other tracks developed Tuesday relate to a European harmonization of the practice of phytosanitary, a better commercial organization of the sector and an improvement of the energy report of the productions under greenhouses. If the participants in the meeting note progress that would allow them to reduce their losses, they remain hungry, however. "This proposal for reduced contributions must take into account a maximum of producers," explains André Bouchut, national secretary of the Confédération Paysanne. It must have a ceiling but no floor, if we want as many as possible to be eligible for this measure ”. Same “mixed” reactions from François Lafitte, president of the Association of fruit and vegetable producers of the Southwest:
François Lafitte was at the forefront of the thorny issue of aid of 500 million euros classified as "illegal" by Brussels, and which set fire to the powder this summer among producers. Brussels and the Ministry of Agriculture are currently examining the amounts at stake and the reference period called into question. An additional period was granted to France to allow it to make its final copy without erasures this time.
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