The Minister of Agriculture Marc Fesneau announced this Wednesday, January 31 on Sud Radio that the government was putting on the table an additional 80 million euros to support
“all wine regions which are in crisis”
.
Expected announcements, while the Prime Minister's general policy statement yesterday did not convince farmers.
In the midst of an agricultural crisis, the minister then specified that the State would cover
“loan interest for the year 2024”
to relieve the cash flow of winegrowers in difficulty.
grubbing-up premium
The minister also announced the establishment of a
“premium for
grubbing up
or restructuring”
.
This envelope of 150 million euros,
“worked with Brussels”
, will allow wine growers to temporarily uproot the vines while they restructure their operations.
“This bonus could be made definitive for reasons of agricultural diversification
,” said Marc Fesneau.
“
It can concern up to 100,000 hectares of vines.”
“Exemptions on fallow land”
The minister, who is going to Brussels this afternoon
“for a series of interviews aimed at accelerating the treatment of European emergencies”,
also declared that he was
“very hopeful that the European Commission will announce exemptions on
fallow land
”.
Farmers must currently ensure that 4% of the surface area of their farm is non-productive (fallowing of arable land but also ponds, hedges, groves, etc.), or have only 3% of non-productive surface area, but add 4% of crops to improve biodiversity, including for example legumes.
“I took the lead of a coalition of 22 out of 27 countries”
for this purpose, he said.
“At a time when in Europe we import 40 million tonnes of cereals – in France we are exporters – to think that there should be totally unproductive land, there are things that are curious
” he explained.
Finally, regarding imports of Ukrainian agricultural products, the Minister of Agriculture declared himself in favor of the establishment
of “an import quantum”
on poultry, cereals and sugar.
The Prime Minister should speak
“quickly”, “probably before the end of the week”
to make
“new announcements”
, concluded Marc Fesneau.
The latter should in particular make it possible to facilitate the transfer of agricultural operations, he specified.