On Wednesday, March 1st, at the Salon de l'Agriculture in Paris, the retail sector signed a new financing agreement for the French Fishing Industry (FFP). It is committed to €68.2 million for four years. Reduced resources, but with the Pavillon France brand now well established, the association will focus more on production.
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| Les signataires - Aldi, Auchan, Carrefour, groupe Casino, Cora, Franprix, Intermarché, Leader Price, Leclerc, Lidl, Match, Monoprix, Système U – participent au budget à proportion de leurs parts de marché. (Photo : Solène Le Roux) |
The executives of the mass distribution have come to show their renewed commitment in FFP, but also to testify their satisfaction with the actions carried out during the first period, 2012-2016. FFP had at this start a substantial budget of 31 million euros per year, which enabled it, for one third of the budget, to create and implement the Pavillon France brand. It is now "recognized by 56% of consumers," says Gérard Higuinen, president of FFP, and presents "about 10% about" on tide shelves, tell the distributors.
Two-thirds of the budget was channeled upstream. The association has thus enabled a vast plan to modernize fishing vessels, infusing 75 million euros in investments improving working conditions on board, energy consumption, selectivity and quality. This has benefited 2,400 ships, about 60% of the metropolitan fleet. Lastly, it has supported more than 70 scientific projects for 18 million euros, for, among other things, a better knowledge of the resource.
For the new period, financing decreases by €18.6 million per year for the first two years and then by €15.5 million for 2019 and 2020. A decrease was expected, Negotiations. Support is reduced by about 1% of turnover, to 0.5% at the end of the period. But promoting the brand will require less effort than it took to implement it. And the Feamp takes over on some grants.
The actions are thus redirected, with fewer credits devoted to promotion; Maintaining the scale of support for research; And an evolution in the accompaniment of production. Assistance to fleet modernization is only maintained in 2017 (notice to interested parties), but the boost to the construction launched in 2016 should be renewed.
More generally, actions should focus on the installation, transmission, renewal of the fleet and of men. With a training effort going from fishers to fishmongers, because it is the whole industry that has trouble recruiting.
Original text here courtesy of Le Marin: