Dairy crisis. The great depression – Telegram

A price of milk and beef, which continues to plunge, with disappointing harvests wheat prices down: the agricultural crisis does not weaken. Apart from the pig that finds some colors, Breton farming is exhausted.

A year after his visit to Saint-Brieuc where he was heckled by farmers angry, the president of the FNSEA, Xavier Beulin, returned yesterday to Brittany to take stock of agricultural crises. If the grain was treated to a welcoming committee (see below), the exchanges he had with a delegation of farmers remained cordial. However, a year after the great mobilizations of last summer, Xavier Beulin could measure the great depression of the Breton farmers, especially dairy farmers. Breeders pay cash the end of quotas. The European market with milk from which a price collapse. The average price paid to producers is expected to be average this year, around 27 cents per liter while in 35 should, at the very least, that the producers live in their trade.

Borrowing to pay

“For 2016, we expect an average income between 10,000 and 15,000 euros. One third of farms have negative income that is to say that producers will have to borrow from their banks to pay salaries. There, in the countryside, a phenomenal disgust, “comments Christian Hascoët. The breeder of Guengat, member of the Apli (Association of Independent Milk Producers), has appeared before Xavier Beulin for a regulation of the European production. “We do not demand a return to quotas, which was too rigid system, but simply an adjustment of supply to demand. Today we produce for a market that does not exist, “laments Christian Hascoët.

€ 14 million less for Brittany

Another element that adds to the despair: the decline the price of beef. The end of quotas has prompted European dairy farmers to enlarge their herds where a glut today. According to the categories, the prices of animals, already low, fell by 10 to 15% in one year. To make matters worse, the 2016 harvest is very disappointing in Britain too, as global prices plunge. Milk producers, who mostly grow grain, expect a significant shortfall of about 300 euros per hectare compared to 2015, 6,000 euros for an operation that cultivates 20 hectares of cereals . To top it all, there is, finally, the decision to Stéphane Le Foll maintain the redistributive payment to 10% in 2017 instead of the 15% forecast, which will deprive Britain of 14 million euros of aid. Peasant Confederation of Britain speaks of “treason” vis-à-vis farmers and in agricultural employment. “The Minister of Agriculture has clearly taken sides in favor of large farms which still account for more land, and Xavier Beulin, their leader,” acknowledges Jean-Marc Thomas, spokesman in Cotes d’Armor.

As best for pork

But it gets better towards the hog who found best courses. Strong Chinese demand has boosted the rating of the European pig. It is a lifeline very welcome in farms face many months of crisis. Olivier Allain, former president of the Agriculture Today regional councilor room, this improvement in the pig shows the importance of the “price effect” on treasuries farms. “The rise in prices paid to producers is more efficient than any government assistance. The supply-demand balance, the regulation of production, these are fundamental concepts in agriculture, “says the farmer of suckler cows Corlay (Côtes d’Armor).