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L'aviculture française vingt ans après : les limites de la « révolution avicole » dans la filière volailles de chair
Get PDFFrench poultry industry changed so rapidly during the last 20 years that is was considered as an exemple of the future organization of french agri-business. However, 20 years after the beginning of the « poultry revolution », there still are large numbers of poultry producers, chicken feed companies and slaughter-houses. This situation must be explained since, with the available techniques, the same production could be obtained from a few large producers and processing plants. Our analysis will attempt to show why the industrialization of poultry sector followed an inexpected path. The present report is based on the first findings of a research in progress Two warnings before the main results are presented : the main part of the study does not deal with eggproduction, it is based almost exclusively on existing data which are unfortunately sparse and fairly often uncertain. The distribution of meat chicken flocks is nearly statistically normal among the population of trench farm units. In other words, they are distributed among all farm sizes (in terms of acreages) and in all kinds of production systems. In spite of the high rate of concentration in poultry units during the last 15 years, their distribution among size classes and farm types did not change. In short, poultry units have been inserted in all kinds of farms, their expansion did not induce any massive change in their structure and the new model expected by many economists : the highly specialised poultry unit with no land, did not emerge. The main purpose of contracts in broiler production is to insure a flexible planning of production. However it isnot as widespread as had been predicted (30 % of production is without contracts) and many of the cases of integrationare rather loose with verbal agreements — not entirely unlike the situation of dairy farmers with regard to their relations withthe dairy industry. In spite of its low price, poultry meat was not heavily substituted to other meats. Competition between pork and poultry (stronger in France than in other OECD countries), the high rate of consumption of home produced poultry and the high level of purchases of poultry and rabbits produced by the small traditional farm flocks (nearly 50 % of the total consumption), the strength of food consumption habits (french people have been heavy poultry consumers for about a century), all these factors restrict the development of « industrial » broiler and explain the nature of their present market. It seems that these three conclusions shed some light on the original development of the french chicken sector. The lack of specialization of the farms producing poultry and its corollary, the small size of flocks compared to the optimal ones, are due to a double constraint : a)the poultry activity remains linked to the other farm productions because its labour requirements are now so reduced (between 1960 an 1973 the working time required for a medium flock was reduced by half). An other factor requiring insertion in a (diversified) farm is the low profitability of poultry and the high costs of the necessary investments. b)this structure of broilers production is linked to the structure of slaughter plants and the marketing system. In France most poultry is consumed fresh (not frozen), thence the marketing system must be very flexible and handle small diversified and urgent orders. This requires that the slaughter houses be able to draw on a variety of sources of supply. So the industry remains inconcentrated and does not now attract outside capital, in spite of what had been predicted
La politique agricole et alimentaire américaine face au reste du monde
Get PDFIn a world where most cereals are grown for self-consumption, America's role both in their production and their export, and her consequent place in the world grain trade are of primary importance. Agricultural exports are also vital for the USA whose oil imports and declining non-agricultural exports contribute to chronic balance of payments deficits. In the coming years, both volume and prices of grain exports should increase, the latter reaching, around 1985-86, the record levels of 1973-74. The USA's clients, whether industrialised or developing countries, do not seem to be taking countermeasures which could offset their increasing dependency on American exports. International bodies have failed, up to now, in their attempts to build up stocks and to regulate market fluctuations. Considering in the importance of agricultural exports to the economic health and even survival of the nation, it is normal that the US make every effort to maintain and to increase them : among such efforts are the use of food aid, the expansionist policies of grain producers associations and the perfection of worldwide agricultural information-gathering systems. It is probable that the United States will improve its dominant position on world grain markets and may well use this position for political and economic ends
Problèmes monétaires, montants compensatoires
Get PDFThe fluctuation in exchange rates has thrown the agricultural policy mechanisms worked out for fixed rates into confusion. For years two zones have existed in Europe — that of strong currencies with fixed compensatory payments to subsidize their agricultural exports and that of weak currencies on whose exports was levied a variable tax. The persistence of this situation has led to distortion in exchanges and in the geographical implantation of the production. Banking mechanisms enable the uncertainty caused by fluctuation in exchange rates to be lifted. The European monetary system has given rise to the hope that the stock of monetary compensatory payments may some day be reduced
