Thomas Hubert reports on the French protests

French livestock farmers have stepped up protests against low farmgate prices since mid-July, blockading roads, milk and meat factories, as well as tourist sites.

In response, France’s departments of agriculture and finance last week introduced multiple tax breaks and deferments for livestock producers, as well as €500m in bank loan guarantees for struggling meat processors – some of which owe arrears to farmers. However, actions have continued this week, including pickets along the German border.

The protests have compounded transport difficulties as illegal migrants and police operations against them have repeatedly disrupted traffic at French ports connecting the UK and Ireland to mainland Europe.

“From a logistics perspective, trade has already been disrupted by issues at the port and tunnel in Calais for the last month or so,” Noreen Lanigan, head of Bord Bia for France and Belgium, told the Irish Farmers Journal.

An opinion survey of French citizens last week showed that 88% of respondents supported the farmers’ protests and 81% were prepared to pay more for French rather than imported meat and dairy products. The government, too, has called on all public institutions to purchase only French products in an effort to support domestic production.

“There’s pressure on a lot of our French customers to support the French farmers’ movement,” said Bord Bia’s Lanigan.

“That has a knock-on effect and is making it difficult to sell an Irish imported product into the market.”

However, she does not see government appeals to turn away from imported products as a long-term trend.

“I’ve seen them make statements like that in the past and we’ve turned things around,” she said.

The underlying sluggishness of the French market is of greater concern.

“Here, we talk about food deflation rather than inflation, and certainly a lot of categories – including meat – aren’t performing well,” she said.

“Lamb was the worst affected, down 15.8% volume-wise and 2.9% in price” in Kantar data for French consumption in May, she added.

Chris Walkland reports from England

Forty angry farmers in Staffordshire and Derbyshire staged a rolling roadblock of one of the major dual carriage ways crisscrossingthe midlands in England last Friday.

The farmers used tractors, balers and forage harvesters to protest against low and falling farmgate milk prices.

The demonstration coincided with Arla dropping its milk price by the equivalent of about 1c/l, although it was not specifically targeted at Arla. Tailbacks lasted for about an hour before the police intervened. No arrests have been reported, nor have the names of the ringleaders been released.

The National Farmers Union (NFU) and Farmers For Action, the organisation which has coordinated many of the UK’s peaceful protests, were not involved and both have distanced themselves from this protest.

Angry

Instead, it is believed that angry contractors, unable to get paid, started the impromptu demonstration along with some disillusioned dairy farmers from the region.

Derbyshire and Staffordshire has been one of the hotbeds of Farmers For Action activity in recent years, led by the hardline coordinator Paul Rowbotham. However, he has just quit his position, and was also not involved in the demonstration.

Farmers for Action and the NFU have both denounced the action. The NFU said it will take further action to help support farm incomes.The likely targets will be Tesco and Sainsburys. Protests could take place as early as this week.