Document type : press release from the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Sovereignty (MASA)
Author : MASA
Preview: Last July, against a background of difficulties for the abattoir sector, the French Minister of Agriculture and Food Sovereignty, Marc Fesneau, launched a four-pronged approach that brought together professionals and local authorities to build a localized strategy for abattoirs that could help the livestock industry.
Over the last few months, the work carried out by the Ministry's departments in conjunction with representatives from professional organizations and local authorities has enabled the development of two shared diagnostic tools to identify:
- the relevant network of abattoirs at local level (Axis 1 of the strategy);
- the strengths and weaknesses of a typical abattoir based on economic and health performance indicators (Axis 2).
This work has also made it possible to draw up a single document listing the tools available to those involved in providing support for establishments in economic and health difficulties (axis 3).
Over the coming weeks, the Ministry's regional departments will be producing local situation reports following a standardised procedure set out under Axis 1, that will examine the fit between the need for and supply of slaughtering facilities in each region, in the short, medium and long terms, and will then identify the relevant areas for improvement and adaptation for each geographic centre of production.
Then, between now and March 2024, the regional authorities will meet for the presentation of the results of the local situation reports and launch the individual abattoir reports as part of Axis 2.
The operational implementation of the action plan will thus rely on the regional authorities bringing together, as a minimum, representatives of inter-professional groups, local authorities, and the departments of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Sovereignty and the Ministry of Economy and Finance.
The abattoir guarantee fund, which was announced as part of the plan to give back independence to livestock farming, will take the form of a public underwriting scheme for 50 million euros in outstanding loans. The French Ministry of Agriculture and Food Sovereignty will make use of this fund to support abattoirs that are identified as having strategic importance for a region or an industry following the local and individual reports.
