Goodbye calves, cows, pigs… Here, in the port of Le Havre (Seine-Maritime) among containers, unloading gantries and heavy goods vehicles, the atmosphere was far from rural on this Monday, January 12 morning. And yet, at the call of the Young Farmers (JA) of Normandy, there were still around thirty of them coming to demonstrate their opposition to the Mercosur agreement at the François 1er gate, from where the containers unloaded on the quays of Port 2000 exit.
They arrived on Saturday from the Normandy Bridge, where they had met in dozens from the five Normandy departments. With one objective in mind, that of reaching the port of Le Havre to carry out targeted control operations there from this Monday morning.
“The idea is not to block everything. We are interested in refrigerated trucks and what we find inside,” summarizes Justin Lemaître, the general secretary of the JA76, his features a little drawn from two nights holding the position in winter weather conditions. “We look at the drivers’ delivery slip, we ask them to get out, we authorize them to film the operations if they wish and we open the trailer to check where the goods come from.”
“They are fighting for their livelihood”
Time to explain the process, and the heavy goods vehicle of a local transporter pulls carefully onto a side road, symbolically “blocked” by a tractor. Time to cut the yellow ties affixed by the customs service with the grinder, the rear doors are opened calmly, under the placid gaze of the driver. “I let them do it,” smiles the latter. “I even support them. They are fighting for their livelihood. Afterwards, I’m only there to go from point A to point B. In the majority of cases, I don’t even know what I’m transporting, or where the cargo is going to land.” In this case, these are noodle soups from South Korea, probably on their way to the Paris region.
“We take a sample each time to make an assessment at the end of the movement,” continues Justin Lemaître. “Since this morning, we have had mushrooms from China and three trucks loaded with washed sheep intestines which will be used to make sausages and merguez. Again it came from China.” An aberration according to him since at the same time French breeders must destroy these same casings, “because we tell them that it is not profitable to take the time to wash them here”.
“Foods that could be produced in France”
Around one p.m., around twenty heavy goods vehicles had been inspected, with among the catches fillets of Alaskan hake, also passing through the Middle Kingdom, or even shrimp caught in Honduras. “We pay attention to products from South America. But what we see above all is that many of these imported foodstuffs could most of the time be produced in France,” regrets the trade unionist who has his sights set on the demonstration planned for January 20 in Strasbourg, in front of the European Parliament. “Until then, we must occupy the ground, show that we do not want to give up.”
Scheduled until at least Monday evening, the control operations could be renewed this Tuesday. “We will take stock in the evening. The motivation is there. But at the same time, we have to take care of our farms and recharge our batteries a little.” Because he knows, the mobilization promises to be long.