The Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, announced on Friday a tax exemption measure in favor of cattle breeders, who have seen their taxes increase due to the increase in the value of their livestock.
In the 2024 budget, an exceptional measure to support French livestock farming will take the form of a provision of 150 euros per cow, up to 15,000 euros per farm, or one hundred cows, in order to reduce the taxation of breeders which results from the increase of the value of their stock, indicated Bruno Le Maire in an interview with the regional daily The mountain.
This is a strong demand from the breeding world. In these times of budgetary scarcity we still wanted to access it, added the man who was Minister of Agriculture from 2009 to 2012. During a visit to the Cournon-d’Auvergne Livestock Summit (Puy-de-Dme ), Bruno Le Maire specified that the measure would cost several tens of millions of euros.
This tax exemption was demanded by the FNSEA, the majority agricultural union, which emphasizes that with inflation the book value of cows increases, which ultimately increases the farmer’s taxes.
From an accounting standpoint, cows are fixed stock.
We must stop the decapitalization (decline, editor’s note) of the French cattle herd, Mr. Le Maire told the Livestock Summit. We must stop this hemorrhage just as we have managed in recent years to stop industrial hemorrhage.
This measure is in fact seen as a means of combating the decline in livestock numbers and the decline in French production of beef and milk.
Without tax relief, breeders could be tempted to sell a few cows to reduce their tax, which risks resulting in a loss of production capacity, pointed out the president of the FNSEA, Arnaud Rousseau, on Wednesday during a press conference. .
While professionals also fear paying the price for the government’s desire to lower the cost of food, the minister assured that he would (ensure) the defense of farmers’ interests during annual negotiations between supermarkets and their major suppliers. of the agri-food industry.
Bercy is currently proposing a bill to bring forward the start date of these negotiations in the hope of lowering prices more quickly on the shelves.
The drop in shelf prices should not result in an effort by producers but by an effort by distributors and manufacturers, Mr. Le Maire said on Friday.