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Organic food : France wants European primacy
France
Monday 10 March 2008
The French market of organic food registered a growth trend of 9.5 percent per year from 1999 to 2006, while imports increased up to 50 percent of the total amount.
The minister of Agriculture Michel Barnier, who attended the “Salon de l’Agriculture”, revealed the government’s ambitious plans for this sector; these measures can be useful to satisfy the domestic demand as well as the purchases from abroad. Barnier stressed the importance of research to develop organic agriculture.
Besides increasing the aid funds to those who choose the conversion, ministerial plans include double tax credit for organic cultivators. Moreover, the French government decided to allocate a support of 3 million euros per year to “Agence Bio” for the next five years.
From 553,000 hectares of organic cultivation in 2006, France expects to reach 1.6 millions hectares by 2012, tripling current cultivations (6% of the total): the purpose is to overtake Italy as a leader in Europe in the sector.
The minister of Agriculture Michel Barnier, who attended the “Salon de l’Agriculture”, revealed the government’s ambitious plans for this sector; these measures can be useful to satisfy the domestic demand as well as the purchases from abroad. Barnier stressed the importance of research to develop organic agriculture.
Besides increasing the aid funds to those who choose the conversion, ministerial plans include double tax credit for organic cultivators. Moreover, the French government decided to allocate a support of 3 million euros per year to “Agence Bio” for the next five years.
From 553,000 hectares of organic cultivation in 2006, France expects to reach 1.6 millions hectares by 2012, tripling current cultivations (6% of the total): the purpose is to overtake Italy as a leader in Europe in the sector.
