Tuesday, August 23, 2016

Lactalis: milk producers turn up the heat – Le Point

They were nearly 400 farmers on Monday night to block a road leading to the Lactalis factory near Laval. A rally to extend their action over several days to get a “fair price” of milk from the world leader in dairy products. The message is clear: “No Lactalis truck will come out of the factory so that [they] did [uront] not been heard,” said Philippe Jehan, President of the Departmental Federation of Farmers’ Unions (FDSEA) Mayenne, before an audience of farmers from the West. The union leader also threatened to go “withdraw [rays] supermarkets the Lactalis products.”

Shortly after 23 pm, no truck out or never entered the Mayenne plant Lactalis, was a journalist for Agence France-Presse. The roundabout near the plant was completely blocked by a dozen tractors, and traffic was interrupted. The action took place peacefully. A dozen riot police trucks and a dozen other gendarmes were stationed nearby.



“Our profession has a price”

Around the highway, Young Farmers (JA) had set up a tent to house throughout the week farmers who have to relay on the site. Many posters, installed on trucks and tractors, read: “Breeders end. We must save milk “or” Our profession has a price. ” The Mayenne breeders began this action to the initiative of the FDSEA (majority union) and JA. The Mayennais will be raised Tuesday by the producers of Britain. Normandy and the Loire Valley assure the blockade the following days.

Posted near the Lactalis factory with his tractor, Loïc is “determined to stay as long as necessary.” Producer for over 20 years, he came to express his “ras-le-bol”. “I was born into the business, I have never seen such a deep crisis,” says Mayennais to tears.

Lactalis, which highlights a “crisis of overproduction” s’ says ready for producer organizations to discuss with them in milk prices, assured on France Inter Nalet Michel, spokesman of the group. “The problem with Lactalis is that the wage share is not in his DNA,” says Pascal Clément, President of the dairy section of the Regional Federation of Agricultural Unions (FRSEA) the great West, which points also “the results increasingly important dairy industry,” while “dairy farmers are in a dramatic situation.” This month, the price charged by Lactalis is 256 euros per tonne. It was 363 euros in July 2014.



Economic conditions fit

“In my department, by December 31, it was almost 14% of farms that are going to the key under the door. Usually there are 2 or 3% per year who retire, but now 15% is unimaginable, and those that remain into debt. We can not continue like this, “urges Ludovic Blin, of the FDSEA of the Channel. Western farmers “eligible” to regain “economic conditions worthy”, hope their movement will echo in other regions, which was the case on Monday in the Aveyron.

“We do not want to beg. We, the farmers, we want to live our profession, but in any case we will request aid to the state. What we want is that the mediator trade relations [...] to intervene and put around the table interlocutors to found an agreement that allows by the end of the year of have a reasonable price for our farmers, “said Agence France-Presse Philippe Jehan.

” the Ombudsman is available to the parties to engage this mediation engage this discussion, find ways of dialogue “, had indicated in the day the Minister of Agriculture, Stéphane Le Foll. Pessimistic about the future of the industry, Pasacal Clement warns: “If our French farms disappear, we will end up with large milk factories as the US and Germany. This is not the model of dairy France [...]. This is what we want to say Emmanuel Besnier, “the CEO of Lactalis.

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