French minister of agriculture Bruno Le Maire this week revealed his support for an additional reduction in social insurance contributions for those working full-time in agriculture.
Such was the demand of the FNSEA, France's largest farming union, which holds its annual congress this week.
Mr Le Maire stated on Canal+ that French agriculture was currently making up the gap in competitiveness, and recalled that the government had already done away with all social insurance contributions for casual agricultural labour.
'We are now at exactly the same level as the Germans,' he said. 'The next step is for all full-time labour.'
This is the best way to help French farmers,' he added, 'to be able to tell them that their labour costs will be the same as in Spain, Germany, Italy and all their main competitors.'
According to Agence France-Presse, prime minister François Fillon could announce the introduction of food price indexing when he attends the FNSEA congress in Saint-Malo, an idea supported by Mr Le Maire.
'We cannot have these never-ending negotiations between producers and distributors, always to the detriment of the producers, who are the weaker party,' Mr Le Maire said.
He further stressed that the government was being 'extremely vigilant' regarding increases in food prices and would sanction those that raised prices without justification.
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