With the 2006 harvest affected by a series of extremely adverse weather events, many grain growers and oil and protein seed farmers in different regions around France will see their sales income unchanged or declining, even though prices have gone up, as their yields fall well below average.

This development is particularly difficult for them to deal with as major items of expenditure (fertilizer and fuel) have gone up again, and steeply, over the past year.  Farmers specialising in cultivated crops were already in a fairly precarious cash flow situation, as income in the sector had plummeted by 19.4% in 2005, continuing the virtually uninterrupted decline from 1997 to 2004.
 
ORAMA has therefore called on the Minister of Agriculture to do his utmost to persuade the European Commission to grant the request made for early release of the direct payments due in France.  These payments need to be made in mid-October, instead of on December 1.
  
Contacts :      
Pascal Hurbault, 01 44 31 16 25