Agricultural Show: "The future of the French sector is being decided at the moment," says Jean-Michel Javelle, president of Sodiaal

At the agricultural show, the milking parlor is full, in front of the stand of the first dairy cooperative in France: Sodiaal. Sodiaal includes brands as well-known as Yoplait, Candia and Entremont; giants of a product often at the heart of debates on farmers' remuneration: milk. " We are very confident about the dairy sector and the future of the dairy sector ", states its president Jean-Michel Javelle, while commercial negotiations between distributors and producers are due to end this Saturday, March 1. Negotiations partly disrupted by a grand meeting, this Wednesday, February 26, with five of the largest distributors.

franceinfo: Did you listen this morning to the bosses of the large retailers who came to the show - all of them, except Leclerc - to announce actions in favor of farmers? What do you say about it?

Jean-Michel Javelle: I am not fully informed of what was said during this press conference. We were lucky enough to receive a certain number of our distributor customers and to have very constructive discussions. We have a well-organized profession through the interprofession, and we have a law that has helped us through EGalim, so we are very confident, even if there are some concerns, in particular bluetongue which is putting pressure on our collections.

"We see a drop in our collection, and that concerns us. That's why we're going to defend the value of our milk."

Jean Michel Javelle, President of Sodiaal

Supermarkets are still in your sights. You denounce the use of milk from the European Union in, for example, butter or Emmental cheese from distributor brands. These big bosses of mass distribution: what are they doing? Are they playing a kind of double game?

This autumn, we wanted to defend the origin: one in five Emmental cheeses was imported and we were starting to find them on the shelves of large and medium-sized supermarkets . So, we alerted public opinion by encouraging people to look at the labels.

"Today, at the Salon de l'agriculture stand, the largest farm in France with animals, we are asking consumers to say: "Yes to French milk!"."

Jean-Michel Javelle, President of Sodiaal

This is the slogan of our cooperative, which is nonetheless a unique model: We have the cows, we have the industry and we have the brands. And we want to tell consumers: trust the products of the Sodiaal cooperative, such as Candia, Yoplait or Entremont, because through the price of these products, you ensure the remuneration of breeders and you ensure the vitality of rural areas.

The price of products precisely. We are in full commercial negotiation until Saturday. What consequences for the price of milk? Do you hope to buy it at 470 euros per ton this year? Will you achieve this objective?

We are still in the trade negotiations for two days, so we are reasonably optimistic about obtaining increases. There is no question of obtaining the slightest deflation on dairy products, because, as I told you, our collection is under pressure. Our farmers need to modernize their farms and decarbonize them. All of this requires fair remuneration, so we are asking for moderate increases: for a consumer on a pot of yogurt, it is a few cents increase, but I think that it is the future of the French sector that we are playing at this point in the game.

Is the job of breeder a job of tomorrow? We know that half of French farmers will retire within ten years. Is your job attractive?

Here, at the show, you will mostly find young people who are passionate about breeding. But passion is not enough, you need fair pay. This job is exciting and attractive, but on condition that it is paid at its fair value and that we can modernize our breeding. That is to say, by robotics, or by employees to lighten the workload, which is a significant burden.

It's seven days a week, you know this daily life, you are a breeder yourself. Are young people today really ready to sacrifice their lives like that, like you did?

Being a breeder myself, I am also associated with two young people who do not come from the agricultural sector. This means that they have a passion for cows, and being organized as a collective allows us to free up time. So it allows me to be here at the agricultural show today, and it will allow them, this weekend, to have free time when I am at the farm. So it is very important to be organized with this collective or with robotics.

Are there more and more employees? Because employees still allow you to have holidays, they allow you to have weekends.

In our cooperative, we have hired. In fact, we have a small measure called "Cap sur l'emploi laitier", where we support our producers to become employers of labor on training topics, to write a job offer and then to support. It's much more pleasant to work with several people.

"Working as a collective is a bit of the strength and DNA of our cooperative, on our farms, but also in this large collective where we are 15,000 producers."

Jean-Michel Javelle, President of Sodiaal

The aim of this show is also to meet consumers. How do they welcome you?

I believe that our fellow citizens love agriculture. What we want is to explain to them the uniqueness of our model, through the purchase of our products that they find on the shelves: whether it is milk, cream, butter, or cheese in all its forms. I would like to point out to you in passing that we won 32 medals in the general competition. So, we have know-how that we defend throughout the territory. And all of that has value. In our cooperative, 100% of the profits go to the farmers, part of which is redistributed, part of which is kept in an indivisible reserve that allows us to modernize our tools and ensure the future of our milk.

A word from your competitor Lactalis, the number one in France, and which is not at this show this year, since things went rather badly for it last year. All the less welcome today since it had announced this drop in collection in France with 272 breeders who had found themselves on the floor. Have you taken some of them back since solutions have been found for them?

I'm going to use my joker and I'm going to tell you about the Sodiaal cooperative, which is committed to supporting these breeders, young breeders, with a process called the "Sodiaal Box" where we support 250 breeders per year, and that represents an envelope of 2.5 million. We also want to support the decarbonization of farms, with a sustainability bonus, which we have put in the farms, and that represents an envelope of 10 million euros. So, we are committed to our breeders. And what I wanted to tell you at this point in the match is our slogan "Yes to French milk."