French farmers plan nationwide protests over income issues

ISTANBUL

French farmers’ groups on Friday called for nationwide protests next month to address income and pricing issues in the agricultural sector.

The demonstrations will mark the final phase of a broader campaign targeting trade agreements, administrative simplification, and farmer incomes, Le Monde reported.

Arnaud Rousseau, head of the National Federation of Farmers' Unions (FNSEA), announced the planned actions, set for Dec. 9-10, emphasizing the need to highlight income disparities and pricing negotiations with distributors at the start of the commercial relationship season.

“We will take action nationwide to focus on incomes and the relationship with the pricing of our products. Our aim is to conclude this cycle of protests with a meeting with the prime minister,” Rousseau told RMC radio.

The agricultural unions are pressing for tangible results, with Rousseau underlining the need for concrete outcomes from their talks with government officials.

Separately, French Agriculture Minister Annie Genevard is scheduled to meet with the FNSEA, Young Farmers (JA), and other agricultural unions, including the Farmers' Defense Movement and Rural Coordination.

Discussions will focus on measures to ease the administrative burden on farmers, the Agriculture Ministry said.

The Confederation Paysanne, another major agricultural union, also called for better incomes and administrative reforms but has refrained from opposing regulatory standards and their enforcement. The union will meet with officials "in the coming days."

Talks between the EU and South American trade bloc Mercosur countries on a free trade agreement started back in 2000 and went through on and off phases.

The parties agreed on a comprehensive agreement covering issues such as tariffs, rules of origin, technical barriers to trade, and intellectual property, among others.

The EU and Mercosur were planning to reduce high tariffs on agricultural products, and Mercosur countries would easily sell products such as meat, chicken, and sugar to the EU.

The agreement, however, was never signed nor ratified, and never entered into force.

French farmers argue that the EU-Mercosur agreement is part of a broader trend threatening rural livelihoods in France.