This is a chapter of the note on Foreign Trade published this Tuesday by the High Commission for Planning - which reiterates France's difficulties in exporting, resulting in international market share of 6.3%. in 1990 at 2.5% by mid-2020 - which we would not necessarily have expected to read. Expressed in foreign trade figures, the plate of ratatouille that you may serve this evening at dinner is in deficit of 648 million euros in 2019 (650 million in 2020), writes the High Commission in the world most seriously. Plan.
And to explain it: the balance between exports and imports of tomatoes, zucchini and other eggplants is not in favor of the hexagonal production.
There are more vegetables from abroad on our plates than French vegetables on the plates of our trading partners.
Five deficit vegetables Note from the High Commissioner for Planning
"This situation is worrying, while the" revegetation of the plate ", that is to say the increase in the share of fruits and vegetables in the diets, constitutes a strong trend"
, notes the study.
It is all the more so since the food industry has long been a French force, which has withered over the years.
For this sector, as for the others, the note advises to "
control the whole of the chain, upstream and downstream of the strong points of our production"
. Because it is not normal, she notes, that France is the world's leading exporter of potatoes, but that we have a serious deficit in crisps, mashed flakes and other processed products from the same agrifood sector. Likewise, if France is a dairy power, it is on the other hand a net importer of milking machines. It is the world's largest producer of flax fiber, but it has a deficit in many types of linen clothing and bed linen.
"These considerations underline that reindustrialization calls for an overall reflection, for each production, from end to end, integrating all the links in the chain"
, indicates the High Commission. For the sectors of food, transport, household items, machines and tools, materials, textiles, medical and pharmaceutical products, and hydrocarbons,
"national productions could be strengthened or constituted"
, he insists.
To illustrate the difficulties encountered by many exporters, the experts looked at the 914 products which show a trade deficit of more than 50 million euros, for a total of 217 billion euros.
A situation that arose with the gradual deindustrialization of the country, moving from a production model to a consumption model.
This has increased our dependence on imports.
"We then discover the French weaknesses,
writes François Bayrou, who heads the body, sternly believing that
many of these weaknesses are similar to the economic imbalances imposed on developing countries."