Reading Time: 2 minutes Paris | Reuters — France, reeling from violent protests over the cost of living, said Wednesday it will delay a planned rise in minimum food prices, incurring the wrath of the main farmers group which urged street action next week. A powerful constituency in French politics, farmers have long complained of being hit by a […] Read more
France delays food price rise for farmers after protests
Fearful of swine fever, France to put up fence on Belgian border
Reading Time: < 1 minute Strasbourg, France | Reuters — France will put up fencing along its border with Belgium to prevent wild boars spreading African swine fever, a virulent livestock disease that could disrupt Europe’s pig industry. France has been on alert for African swine fever since Belgium detected the virus last month among wild boars a few kilometres […] Read more
France to the rescue as drought hits EU barley crop
Reading Time: 2 minutes Hamburg | Reuters — Drought has seriously damaged barley harvests in northern Europe, potentially tightening supplies of animal feed and malt for beer brewing, but a decent crop in France could save the day, experts said on Thursday. “There are painful crop losses in Germany, Poland, Britain and Scandinavia,” one German trader said. “The volume […] Read more
U.S. grains: Soybeans down on trade war worry
Reading Time: 2 minutes Chicago | Reuters — U.S. soybean futures closed at their lowest level in more than two years on Monday while corn fell to fresh contract lows on strong U.S. crop prospects and worries about trade fights with China and other main export partners. Wheat also retreated as rising supplies from the U.S. winter crop harvest […] Read more
U.S. grains: Wheat sets two-week high
Reading Time: 2 minutes Chicago | Reuters — U.S. wheat futures touched a two-week high above US$5 a bushel on Friday on reduced expectations for France’s harvest while corn prices rose on concerns over unfavourably hot U.S. crop weather. Soybean futures touched a one-week low after a bout of selling late in the trading session erased earlier gains. An […] Read more
World wine output falls to 60-year low
Reading Time: 2 minutes Paris | Reuters — Global wine output fell to its lowest level in 60 years in 2017 due to poor weather conditions in the European Union that slashed production in the bloc, international wine organization OIV said. Wine production totalled 250 million hectolitres last year, down 8.6 per cent from 2016, data from the Paris-based […] Read more
After milk quotas
French dairy farmers look for a way ahead after Brussels gives up the European supply management system
Reading Time: < 1 minute French dairy farms are in turmoil. France is the second-largest dairy producer in the European Union, and for the past 30 years, governments there had used quota to tie milk production to assigned farm regions. But then Brussels pulled the plug on the EU quota system in 2015, and now decisions about where and how […] Read more
The most hated dairy farm in France
Milk After Quotas: Some dairy farms in southern France are facing an existential crisis
Reading Time: 4 minutes The least we can say is that Michel Welter, director general of France’s biggest dairy farm, is a tough cookie. At 51, this former dairy producer works not only under daily pressure from the citizens of his village, Abbeville, located in northern France, but from the whole country for having built an “industrial farm” of […] Read more
Organic milk: 1,000 farms for one cow
Milk After Quotas: In the past decade, Biolait has seen its production double in size
Reading Time: 2 minutes When I meet him at their brand new headquarters in Saffré, a village in western France, it’s clear Théofile Jouve, director general of Biolait is a proud man. “In 2013, when the price of conventional milk was almost the same as organic milk, we had 60 farmers ask to be part of our business,” he […] Read more
Setting their own quota
Milk After Quotas: Milk producers find more success with cheese
Reading Time: 3 minutes Jean-Marie Guinchard looks across his ancestral farm located at la Sommette, a hamlet near the Swiss border. “We are cheese producers before being milk producers,” he tells me. “That’s saved us because we get a much higher return than conventional milk.” With his herd of 160 milking cows of the Montbéliarde breed, the 58 year […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
