Christiane Lambert, a 55-year-old pig farmer from western France, became president of FNSEA on Thursday. The organisation is the leading farmers’ union in the EU’s largest agricultural producer. Lambert had been acting president since the sudden death of Xavier Beulin in February and was the only candidate for the position.

Consumers must be ready to pay more for what they are ordering

She will lead the organisation through the presidential and legislative elections of the coming weeks and negotiations on the CAP after 2020. Some of her first comments were to renew calls for administrative simplification and tax breaks, while insisting that consumer calls for the best food had to be matched with sufficient farmgate prices. "We have heard their demand for higher quality products, with more traceability and organic food, but this comes at a price. When you buy French-made clothes, they are more expensive – the same goes for agriculture. Consumers must be ready to pay more for what they are ordering," she told a news conference.

Exceptional aid

Lambert takes the helm after the past two years of low commodity prices, street protests and successive government rescue packages have left many French farmers in despair. Last month, prime minister Bernard Cazeneuve extended exceptional financial aid and tax breaks until the end of this year and offered free debt audits to thousands of farms facing bankruptcy.

Grain grower Jacques Fortin, who farms in the centre of the country, illustrated the sector's difficulties when he made headlines this week with the word “help” imprinted in giant letters in one of his fields.

The farmer told local media he had sown wheat to form the letters, which are visible from planes approaching Paris-Orly airport. "I would like politicians to become aware of the most serious situation in agriculture," he told France Bleu radio. "Every day, two farmers commit suicide."

Fortin added that he would erase the message in the coming days to plant maize and sorghum.

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