Fruits and vegetables: Producers want help to cover 60% of national consumption

French fruit and vegetable growers said Thursday they are looking for ways to cover 60% of national consumption, up from 50% currently. In order to achieve their goal, they intend, in particular, to rely on the “sovereignty plan” promised by the government. Announced weeks after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the executive’s “resilience plan” called for, in the agricultural section, strengthening France’s food sovereignty by reducing its dependence on imports.

The first lever is activated: a “medium and long-term sovereignty plan for the sector” of fruits and vegetables is being developed, so that “by 2030 the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Sovereignty.

According to Interfel, an interprofessional organization for fresh fruits and vegetables, France produces half of the fruits and vegetables consumed on its land (approximately 40% of fruits and 60% of vegetables). Manufacturers want to bring this national supply to “about 60%” within ten to fifteen years, Interfel President Laurent Grandin said during a press conference.

The decline is due to the “loss of competitiveness”

Without a change in trend, the rate threatens to fall to “35.40% in ten years, which does not seem acceptable to us in a country like France,” he reasoned. According to him, this decrease “is mainly due to the loss of competitiveness.” “If we don’t want to disappear tomorrow, we must act today,” Grandin continued.

Interfel is counting on a statement from Minister Marc Féno on the occasion of the agricultural exhibition starting on 25 February. Recalling that the latter’s title included “food sovereignty” in an unprecedented way, Laurent Grandin warned that the profession “would not be content with scoops and recycling available funds.”

Without defining them precisely, the interprofessional requires that “sufficient” funds be allocated to it to help protect crops from pests and weather, or to invest in machines that increase yields and compensate for labor shortages. She also expects fruit and vegetable consumption, a “public health issue”, to continue to be supported. The government’s promise of a “food check” for low-income households was eventually replaced by another state aid (either the inflation check or the energy check).