Article Source: "800.000 tonnes de céréales perdues pendant les JO ? Les céréaliers inquiets face à un trafic fluvial limité", Barthélémy Philippe, Europe 1, 19/01/2024.
Representatives of French cereal farmers are meeting officials at the Paris Police Prefecture this morning to discuss the transport of grain, during the Olympic Games, using barges on the river Seine. The river that flows through the French capital is a traditional shipping route for cereal exports. However, the authorities have decided, for security reasons, to ban all river traffic for the week preceding the opening ceremony on 26 July.
The traffic will then be subject to periodic restrictions until 8 September when the Paralympic Games come to an end. These restrictions are a considerable source of worry for cereal farmers, especially as July is the start of the harvest season. During this crucial period, hundreds of thousands of tonnes of wheat are usually transported via the Seine.
No Plan B
According to Christophe Grison, president of farming cooperative Valfrance, the main problem is that there is no Plan B: “There is no temporary storage solution upstream, it doesn’t exist,” he explains, “the suggestion was to use lorries instead, but we don’t have that many available. One less barge on the Seine requires 50 HGVs to replace it. There’s no way we’re going to get that many.”
So the farmers are making their case to the Préfet (head of the local police authority) to try and get the restrictions relaxed, at least for the week preceding the opening ceremony: “We’re asking for an exemption and greater flexibility,” says Grison, “even if it means having convoys supervised by the authorities. We understand the safety concerns. But it’s also important to understand that, in France, in the middle of summer, it’s harvest time.”
The total closure of the Seine during the Olympics, a measure that was originally on the table, might have resulted in losses of up to 500 million euros.
Translated by Zoé Vilers, Charlie Juet and Cécile Lamhene.
Editing by Sam Trainor.