The Minister of Agriculture promises to provide financial aid to the vital agency to stop the crisis

Suffering from inflation and facing a drop in demand, a strong boost is being given to organic products. The Minister of Agriculture, Marc Visnot, announced on Tuesday, December 6th, additional financial resources for the Bio-Agency responsible for the development, promotion and structuring of French organic agriculture. “This sector, like others, is going through a crisis, and there is no question of leaving it behind and abandoning the goal of making 18% of the French agricultural area organic by 2027”the Minister of Organic Agriculture announced to Agence France-Presse (AFP), on the occasion of the convening of organic agriculture and food associations.

In front of the players in the sector, he announced the payment of an additional 5 million euros in 2023 to Fonds Avenir Bio, which is managed by Agence bio and aims to help producers invest and promote their products, including “The criteria will change in order to be able to fund more projects.”and a government contribution of €750,000 to the vital agency for the publication of a new communications campaign.

Additional resources for the vital agency aim to have studies completed by the end of the year A more detailed understanding of the crisis, in particular the reasons for the drop in demand.Mr Fesneau said, thinking about organic consumption scenarios by 2040. “The increase in organic demand also includes general orders. Today, we have 6% of organic orders in group restaurants. We have work to do on this with local communities.In particular, the minister said, to increase the share of organic food in canteens.

Sales decrease by 5% in one year

With the 5 million euros announced by the Minister, Fonds Avenir Bio will be given a total of 13 million euros, to which will be added “2 million euros remaining from the recovery plan”. These additional funds should make it possible to start thinking about structuring sectors, such as the organic pork sector, which is currently experiencing an acute crisis in demand.

While he welcomed the State’s commitment, the President of the National Federation of Organic Agriculture, Philippe Cambouret, regretted that the Minister had not announced “There is no direct aid to producers.”. “All this money, which would be useful for communication around the sector, will not help farmers in distress. This is the first time we have faced such a crisis and the first time we have asked for direct assistance as is the case for other sectors.He said, pointing to the example of the massive subsidies provided by the state to the traditional pork industry, which suffers from a structural deficit.

After ten years of double-digit growth, the organic market has been hit hard by inflation, as consumers back away from cheaper products. According to consumer data analytics firm IRI, turnover in the organic sector will decline for the second year in a row. At the end of October 2022, the decline in sales over the course of a year was approximately 5%. France currently has 56,000 organic farms, representing 10.3% of the useful agricultural area.