The FNSEA gives the new Minister of Agriculture “a fortnight” to act on “emergency measures”

“There were commitments made to farmers in the spring and today we are waiting for these commitments to take shape,” warns Arnaud Rousseau.

“What we expect from Annie Genevard is her ability to act and to do it immediately”warns Arnaud Rousseau on franceinfo on Sunday, September 22. The president of the FNSEA gives “a fortnight” to the newly appointed Minister of Agriculture to act and respond to farmers’ expectations on the “emergency measures”Among the topics on the table: cash loans and the vaccination of sheep and cattle in the context of the bluetongue epizootic, “so many subjects that are highly anticipated in agricultural operations”.

“What matters is that urgent decisions are made”continues Arnaud Rousseau. “I am obviously talking about these cash loans, the banks are ready,” he specifies. The president of the FNSEA recalls that this is a promise from the previous minister, Marc Fesneau, who “had said that there would be support from the public investment bank” whereas, at this stage, “this is not the case”.

While 2,812 outbreaks of bluetongue have been recorded as of September 19 in around twenty French departments, Arnaud Rousseau demands “a quick illumination” from the new Minister of Agriculture on the issue of vaccines. “We cannot have only one million vaccinated cattle when we have 18 million in France”he adds.

Arnaud Rousseau calls, in particular, for the resumption of parliamentary work on the agricultural orientation law, suspended with the dissolution. “There are commitments that were made to farmers in the spring and today, we are waiting for these commitments to take shape”he adds.

“We have waited two months for a Prime Minister, more than 15 days for a government, the agricultural world now needs urgent decisions.”

Arnaud Rousseau, president of the FNSEA

to franceinfo

“And then, we will need a minister who gets involved in Brussels quickly, to ensure that Mercosur is not signed, that the Chinese threat to viticulture and cognac, but also dairy and pork products, does not grow, so there are a lot of issues on the table and we need things to move very quickly.”concludes Arnaud Rousseau.