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The 2023 edition of the International Agricultural Show begins this Saturday, February 25 at the Porte de Versailles Exhibition Center in Paris. Hundreds of thousands of people are expected for this 59th edition which will be held against a backdrop of high inflation linked to the war in Ukraine.
This time, Emmanuel Macron intends to stay all day at the Agricultural Show. After a 2021 edition canceled due to Covid-19, he only made an appearance there last year in the morning to leave to take care of the Russian offensive in Ukraine. It was Prime Minister Jean Castex who took over to survey the bays of the Parc des expositions at the Porte de Versailles in Paris.
The profession awaits the president with many questions. Faced with the consequences of the war in Ukraine, the agricultural world is worried about the explosion in the price of animal feed, the increase in energy which penalizes their farms and increases their production costs. According to the FNSEA, the main agricultural union, costs linked to energy and raw materials have jumped by 16.5% in the sector in one year. Not to mention the lack of rainfall. The country is currently experiencing an unprecedented winter drought. The president has hammered home the need for France to regain food sovereignty, and one of the main issues is to learn a lesson from the war in Ukraine.
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But other issues agitate the profession, such as those of fishing or the ban on neonicotinoids. France had granted two years ago a derogation from the European ban on the use of these insecticides in beet seeds. Paris was to renew it for 2023, but finally gave it up, plunging beet growers into major difficulties. In the entourage of the President of the Republic, we insist on the will of the Head of State to help farmers prepare for the changes necessary to allow this sector, which is so important in France, to project itself into the future.
The sectors have all committed to greenhouse gas emissions of 20% by 2025 and beyond.
Jean-Baptiste Dollé, head of the environment department at the Livestock Institute
Weaned for two years, Emmanuel Macron intends to meet as many representatives of the agricultural sectors as possible. He will also come across simple visitors, once the doors of the show are officially open. An immersion within reach of the French as he has not done for a long time.
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