For its canteens, the State will have to supply itself exclusively with European products, promises Sébastien Lecornu

No more food “that comes from the end of the world”. Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu, traveling to a farm in Eure, hoped this Friday that collective catering dependent on the State would be supplied exclusively with agricultural and food products from the European Union.

“It is unthinkable that for all future public markets, there will be agricultural and food raw materials coming from outside the European Union,” he said.

“Some say national preference. I think it’s heresy because France is a major exporting country within the European Union,” explained Sébastien Lecornu.

According to the Prime Minister, “on the other hand, no one can understand anymore in the world in which we live that taxpayers’ money can still be used to buy food which also has an absolutely terrible carbon and climate footprint.”

Include it “in the laws”

Of some 900 million to 1 billion euros of orders for state canteens (armies, universities, etc.), “I asked the various services how much went outside the European Union and how much remained in France, and we still do not have the answer,” he admitted.

According to the Prime Minister, “this will lead us to completely take back control of public procurement, and to also have to reward or punish public buyers according to these objectives”.

“We will include it (…) in future decentralization laws such as the agricultural law that we are preparing,” added Sébastien Lecornu.

Farmers, and in particular breeders, widely mobilized against the EU-Mercosur trade treaty, regularly accuse the public authorities, which sometimes subcontract its collective catering, of not respecting the quotas for local or organic products appearing in its commitments or even in the law.