Is France’s food sovereignty threatened?

France would no longer be the great farmer of Europe. Today it is the only major agricultural country where market shares are declining. The decline of French agricultural power can be seen in the numbers. The world’s second largest exporter 20 years ago, France has fallen to sixth place. In the Drôme, Bruno Darnaud, an arborist, has to make heavy investments to preserve the quality of his products. “We are going to try, through this orchard, to protect it, whether for hail, whether for frost. We are going to make it a little more intensive to try again to also gain in competitiveness. It is a cost which, unfortunately, we find on the shelves, and which sometimes finds itself in competition with the first Spanish or Italian prices”he laments.

Foreign competitors are not affected by the heavy regulations that France imposes on itself. “We have this reflex, unfortunately Franco-French, of weighing down and wanting to become the best in class. Except that by becoming the best in class, we lose market share”, analyzes Bruno Darnaud. The decline is essentially linked to a loss of competitiveness. With apples, for example, a move upmarket is accompanied by a rise in production costs. Foreign competition then lowers prices. Exports are down, and imports are up. In 20 years, the production of French apples has been halved. The country has globally doubled its food imports. In addition, agricultural land is shrinking, yields are falling and farmers are deserting.