At the end of August, the Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne warned : if there must be a power cut this winter, companies will be affected before French households. Among the industries most concerned by this discourse is the agri-food industry, for which energy is necessary for production, but also for the continuity of the cold chain and therefore for the transport and preservation of products.
The major companies in the dairy sector, led by the giant Lactalis, therefore asked for guarantees from the Minister of Agriculture Marc Fesneau on the occasion of the inauguration of the international food fair, Saturday October 15 in Villepinte. The latter met expectations, without going into detail: “ we have taken care to ensure that agriculture and agri-food are among the priority subjects ».
« No alternative available »
« If there is no more gas, we cannot run our factories and our products will no longer be on the shelves. », summarized in La Tribune Christophe Piednoëlgeneral manager of communication and external relations of the Lactalis group, the world leader in dairy products (Président, Bridel, Lactel brands, etc.), which operates 66 dairies and cheese factories in France. « There is no possible alternative because to pasteurize the milk we have to heat it », he continued
A power outage would make any collection of milk impossible. “It would be a huge waste for the producer farmers”, tip Christophe Piednoel. “It is not enough to press a single button to restart a process. A power outage means a break in the cold chain”, he points out. Lactalis was therefore impatiently awaiting this position from the government, while working in parallel to update its continuity plan.
Agrifood faces the puzzle of soaring energy prices
Beyond the risk of cuts, the sector is facing a real price headache. After absorbing the soaring cost of animal feed earlier in the year, the dairy industry must now absorb the cost of energy. Yvan Borgne, export sales director of the Laïta dairy cooperative, reports “ diesel bills up 20%, gas quadrupled ».
For several months, manufacturers have therefore been battling with large retailers to obtain price increases which, ultimately, also condition the income of breeders. “ The increases that we have passed are around 15-20%, but we will have to double again next year warns Yvan Borgne, conceding the difficult compromise between low prices for the consumer and fair remuneration for farmers.
The Minister hopes that theEuropean talks scheduled for next week in Prague would bring visibility », in particular on a potential decorrelation of gas and electricity prices. He assured that the State would come to the aid of “ energy-intensive food industries in an attempt to reduce their energy bill. Part of these increases will, however, according to him, be “absorbed by the cost”. In other words, the price of energy should also be passed on in the purchase price of products by supermarkets, then in the consumer basket.
In addition, Marc Fesneau castigated the “zeal” of distributors to impose logistics penalties on their suppliers in the event of late delivery. He felt that the legislator could have to intervene if the abuses became too numerous.