French tax rebates to ease pressure on farmers

France has promised its tax rebates and investment aid to relieve current income pressures in the sector.

The state supports have come as French farmers drove 1,500 tractors onto the streets of Paris last week to highlight falling incomes and rising costs.

French farmers also joined protests in Brussels yesterday.

French prime minister Manuel Valls, who highlighted pork, beef, and milk as sectors facing the most severe crises, said that hisgovernment’s priority was to lift farmgate prices.

France's farmers are going broke, so they drove 1,700 tractors into Paris to protest http://t.co/LJSZoG2teQ pic.twitter.com/zj7MIGDsJv

— Participant (@Participant) September 4, 2015

“Our aim is to give new perspectives and hope to farmers,” said Mr Valls.

The plan included a rise in state support for investment, co-funded by the EU and French regions, to bring it to €3bn over three years.

The government will also freeze the adoption of new, mostly environmental standards, allow livestock farmers to postpone all debt repayments due in 2015, and will reduce their tax bills.