'Very dangerous situation': Amid 'draconian' costs & controls, EU farmers barely surviving
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00:00 While that rally was going on in Brussels, in Poland, tractors paraded in big cities
00:05 to protest what farmers there see as unfair competition from Ukraine.
00:08 For more, let's go to Bordeaux.
00:11 Christopher Derrida is spokesperson for the Coordination Rurale, the Farmers Union.
00:18 You're also a farmer yourself, and a vintner.
00:24 You herd sheep and grow fruit and vegetable.
00:29 Let me ask you, this movement, for you personally, what's it all about?
00:36 People have had enough.
00:37 They can't actually cope anymore when the overall costs are higher than what's actually
00:44 their salary now.
00:46 Obviously, when it's a crisis that doesn't last too long, they can manage to pick up
00:54 again.
00:55 This has been now a downturn as far as many productions are concerned, and it's not getting
01:02 better.
01:04 People consider it's not worth the trouble farming.
01:07 People are abandoning farming.
01:09 Some very unfortunately, of course, suicide rates are going up.
01:13 We're very anxious.
01:16 It's more an expression of despair than of actual anger.
01:21 It's like a last minute call for help.
01:29 The government seems too close, in a way, to understand.
01:37 Where could the government help?
01:38 I know there's a farm bill being worked on that's now been delayed.
01:42 What could the government do?
01:44 Well, right now, of course, the start is to start listening and receiving and listening
01:52 to the responsible people who have unfortunately been entirely forgotten over all this period.
02:01 It's been very much a political concern to one way and to the other with lobbies, rather
02:10 than the professionals having any words to say.
02:15 And it's become, it's like a last minute effort before people give up, actually.
02:22 When you talk about lobbies that own the conversation, what do you mean specifically?
02:26 Well, I'm an ecologist myself, but in certain circumstances, they push too far in measures
02:35 which don't actually let you survive and have your own crop.
02:40 I'll give you the example of cherries, for example.
02:44 Obviously, in France, we have a marvelous production, very high quality production.
02:50 But if you cannot use a product to defend your crop, if necessary, then you obviously
02:59 go to waste.
03:00 And we just import a similar product, which has been treated, you see.
03:06 And you, by the way, grow organic fruit and vegetable.
03:11 And so you're saying it's overregulation in the wrong direction.
03:16 What about with the big grocery chains?
03:17 What could the government do?
03:19 Well, it's obviously true that now it's the intermediaries that obviously play the game.
03:27 And the difference in prices is so extraordinary that if you actually say to the common public
03:37 how much you're selling for, there's no way they could believe you.
03:41 It's really, the multiplication has not much sense to it, really.
03:48 At one point, they did actually want, a few years ago, to publish what price the producers
03:54 were actually selling for.
03:56 And then, of course, a week later, they pulled out because it was just not understandable
04:01 to the common public.
04:03 Supposing, for example, my walnuts last year, the walnut crop, the strike went on in Paris
04:12 when it came to 50 centimes of euro a kilo, which is not even a fifth of the cost price.
04:22 Obviously-
04:23 Why is this happening?
04:24 Why is this happening?
04:25 How does it feel as though since Covid the margins have gotten that much worse?
04:31 Well, the world market is much developed in all these products.
04:36 And for example, we were talking of walnuts.
04:38 Well, that happens to be in Moldavia, which is actually, all its production has become
04:44 French if you like, all of a sudden.
04:47 In the wine world, as you know, there's a certain volume produced, which is not selling
04:55 sufficiently.
04:57 And whereas, obviously, there's no way you can protect barriers and prevent products
05:02 coming from the world, the entire world.
05:05 But it makes such a high quality product in France with such draconian controls that it
05:13 cannot be given away.
05:15 It's not possible.
05:16 And so it's very, very dangerous situation now when people can no longer actually survive
05:23 continuing their activity.
05:24 All right.
05:26 Pay the fair due for quality goods.
05:29 Many thanks, Christopher Derret for joining us from Bordeaux in the southwest of France.
05:35 Thank you.
05:36 Stay with us.
05:37 There's more to come.
05:38 More news plus the day's business.
05:39 And in sports, we'll give you an update from the Africa Cup of Nations.
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