Compliance with Egalim laws: the Court of Auditors calls for sanctions in the beef sector

Violations of the Egalim laws on farmers' income have not given rise to the sanctions provided for in the beef sector, notes this Wednesday the Court of Auditors, which asks to rectify the situation and recommends the creation of a reporting platform for breeders. Since the beginning of September - before the start of the agricultural crisis - the Court of Auditors has been responsible for scrutinizing the controls carried out by the Directorate General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control (DGCCRF), the body responsible for to verify the contracts concluded between producers and first buyers in the beef sector within the framework of the Egalim laws.

“The sanctions provided for by law have not yet been applied. This situation must be corrected as soon as possible,” the Court noted during its investigation, stressing that the controllers had for the moment only made “reminders of the regulations when they were not applied”. The Egalim 1 and 2 laws, promulgated in 2018 and 2021 respectively, aim to protect farmers' remuneration from the fierce price war between supermarkets on the one hand, and distributors and suppliers of the agro-industry on the other.

“While it is understandable and even desirable that the controls carried out when a law comes into force are of an educational nature, it appears hardly justifiable for this situation to persist,” notes the report. In order to improve the controls carried out by the DGCCRF, the Court of Auditors issued three recommendations, the main of which consists of “setting up a reporting platform intended for farmers with confidentiality guarantees”.

Currently, farmers, “like all companies”, can make reports on the DGCCRF website, recalls the Court of Auditors. But this possibility is not always well known. The Court therefore recommends "in the short term" to ensure "rapid promotion of this possibility among the agricultural world" and in the "longer term" to create "a structured platform for collecting reports", in order to "facilitate the identification of risks directly with producers.

Also read: After the farmers' revolt and the “yellow vest” crisis, how can we rethink the ecological transition?

Beyond the sanctions, the Court of Auditors' report also points to the "asymmetry" of relations between the "very numerous" cattle breeders and "a small number of buyers": thus, 76.3% of the collection of Milk is produced by 28 collecting establishments and for meat, 143 slaughterhouses provide 92% of the tonnages. The result is that buyers “benefit from a balance of power to their advantage in price negotiation”, estimates the Court of Auditors.

This publication comes at a time when France, like other European countries, is shaken by the anger of the agricultural world. After two weeks of blockades and actions, the demonstrators broke camp at the beginning of February after three bursts of announcements from the government. The government notably promised to “strengthen the Egalim law”, announcing an “evaluation mission” of the text, and to strengthen controls on manufacturers and distributors.