Danone is absent subscribers. But the major French industrialists in the sector – the dairy giant Lactalis, the meat specialists Bigard or LDC and major cooperatives such as Sodiaal or Tereos – will be present at SIAL, the world agri-food meeting, which opens its doors, Saturday, October 15, in Paris-Nord-Villepinte. Above all, many French SMEs will make the trip. The challenge: find new customers and develop the share of exports in their sales.
It is true that, in the French agri-food fabric, the disparities are strong. According to the National Association of Agrifood Industries (ANIA), SMEs achieve on average 18% of their turnover outside the borders, when this ratio reaches 40% for mid-sized companies and large groups. Even more strikingly, the twenty-three French heavyweights represent more than half of French exports.
Their efforts weigh heavily in the balance of national foreign trade. The food industry has, in fact, signed the third trade surplus in 2021, with 8.5 billion euros, against 6.1 billion euros in 2020. Of course, wines and spirits feature prominently. Cognacs, champagnes and French wines are snapped up everywhere on the planet. The flow of their exports reached a historic level in 2021, at 15.5 billion euros.
Lack of attractiveness
All these products rely on the link to the land, with signs of quality such as controlled designation of origin, pledges of enhancement and protection. The balance is also in surplus for milk and dairy products, whose sales outside the borders amounted to 7.6 billion euros in 2021.
However, the sad spirits deplore the demotion of France to the rank of fifth world exporter behind China, the United States, Germany and the Netherlands, whereas it occupied the second place in 2005. According to ANIA , excluding wines and spirits, the French food industry’s market share has risen in twenty years from 8% to 4.8%.
However, it claims the status of the country’s leading industry in terms of turnover, with a total estimated at 198 billion euros for 2022. An activity spread over the whole territory, with a number of companies that has grown by 957 in 2021, to reach 16,436. Of this group, 98% are SMEs, and 81% have fewer than ten employees. These companies are recruiting, even if they too are penalized by a lack of attractiveness. The ranks of their employees have further expanded by 2,968 positions this year, for a total of 436,547 jobs.