Published
Video duration:
2 min
Could and should France do everything to be self-sufficient in terms of food? Response elements.
To meet its needs, can France achieve food sovereignty? The country’s dependence on imports is growing. However, France is almost self-sufficient in certain products, such as fruit. On average, over the last three years, production covered 82% of needs. However, it continued to import, at 37%. Chicken farms are also present in France (81%), but 42% of the meat was imported. Manufacturers and restaurateurs sometimes have specific needs.
Foreign competition
Foreign competition often offers products at knockdown prices. In the Var, Stéphane Morfea, market gardener, grows mesclun on 80 hectares. Its Italian competitors sell this salad 10 to 15% cheaper. He says he is helpless. “You have goods that come from other countries, where the minimum wage, when they have one, is lower than the French wage. And all the phytosanitary products that allow us to produce, little by little, are taken away from us without any measure of compensation. Autonomy is decreasing“, explains the latter. A certain autonomy would however make it possible to be less dependent in the event of a crisis.