Food, fertilizer, fuel, containers… farmers who have seen the price of their inputs explode by 50% since the fall of 2021 fear the bill of $ 1.5 billion more to pay off.
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“My production costs will increase more than my income. At some point, I will always have to buy some bread at the grocery store,” says Félix Desaulniers, 32, co-owner of Ferme Plamondon et Fils, from Barraute, in Abitibi.
Luckily for him, his fourth-generation farm is doing well and is still doing well postponing investment plans, but for others it will be a different story altogether.
“A start-up farm or one that has expanded with too high a debt ratio, at some point some may go bankrupt, especially with the key rate going up,” he adds.
Vital emergency aid
Today, the Union of Agricultural Producers (UPA) has alerted governments to ask them for urgent help to mitigate the rising cost of inputs in private agriculture and forestry.
“Special aid is now necessary to avoid a financial disaster for thousands of agricultural businesses,” warned the general president of the Union des producteurs agricole (UPA), Martin Caron, in a letter sent to the ministers of Agriculture. , obtained by The newspaper.
“To do this, this aid can be inspired by the Emergency Account for Canadian Businesses, which makes it possible to combine support with liquidity [portion remboursable] and assistance to support business profitability [portion non remboursable] “, he added.
In their missive, the UPA points out that since the fall of 2021, the average price of inputs has jumped by almost 50%, while the CPI has increased by less than 4.5% over the same period (September 2021 to April 2022).
Tax rebate requested
To help them get through the crisis, farmers are also asking for a diesel fuel tax rebate for the agricultural sector.
Farmers regret that since the beginning of the year, the rise in prices has continued and even accelerated, peaking at 6.8% last April.
“The agricultural producers of Quebec expect unwavering support from their governments to help them get through this difficult period,” concludes UPA General President Martin Caron.
♦ The UPA argues that it is necessary to go back to 1991 to find an annual growth rate of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) higher than that of 2021 in Quebec.