PARIS (March 07 2010): French President
Nicolas Sarkozy announced Saturday an extra
800 million euros in subsidised loans for
farmers hit by the financial crisis, taking
to 1.8 billion euuros a package for the
sector "The money will be there to finance
everything to allow you to tide over the
financial crisis," he said at the Paris
agricultural show during a round table
meeting with farmers' unions.
"I will do for the French agriculture sector
- a strategic and key sector - what we have
tried to do for the financial crisis," he
said. Sarkozy in October announced one
billion euros (1.3 billion dollars) in aid
for embattled French farmers, whose revenues
were slashed by around a third last year.
DAIRY farmers saw their incomes halved.
The French leader also announced Saturday an
extra 50 million euros in aid for badly
indebted farmers, taking the total amount to
100 million euros. He pledged to take moves
to ensure that markets are better regulated.
"From November France will head the G20. We
will take the initiative to promote real
market regulations for primary agricultural
goods to prevent growing speculation," he
said.
"The farmer is an entrepreneur. He should be
able to live off prices and not subsidies,"
Sarkozy added. Earlier this week, Sarkozy
launched a drive to reverse an accelerating
decline in French industry, protect jobs and
raise manufactured output by 25 percent over
five years. The French leader said 6.5
billion euros (8.84 billion dollars) would
be assigned to support research and
investment from funds raised by a special
bond - "the grand national loan" - he
intends to issue later this year.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2010
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