“Love is nearby”: Karine Le Marchand and five distributors showcase their support for farmers

The initiative is original to say the least. In a conference room at the Salon de l'agriculture , which is being held at Porte de Versailles until Sunday, the big names in French distributors responded to Karine Le Marchand 's proposal this Wednesday. The host of the show "L'amour est dans le pré" , who is very committed to farmers , called on major retailers to shake things up in this struggling sector.

"We're not going to wait for politicians to do something, I don't believe in it," said the presenter. At her side, nodding their heads, were the representatives of five brands, namely Thierry Cotillard , president of the Mousquetaires group (Intermarché), Dominique Schelcher , CEO of Coopérative U, Alexandre Bompard , CEO of the Carrefour group, Philippe Palazzi , CEO of the Casino group and president of Monoprix and Guillaume Darrasse , CEO of Auchan Retail and president of Auchan France. Several are missing, such as Michel-Edouard Leclerc , president of the strategic committee of the brands of the same name and John Paul Scally, president of Lidl France.

No matter. Karine Le Marchand and the five distributors have announced a series of three measures for farmers, the first of which will begin at the national level from March ^1st . Entitled "love is nearby" , it aims to support small producers or farmers in financial difficulty. "We will open all participating brands to them to sell their production directly and without intermediaries and generate additional income" , explains Dominique Schelcher.

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In concrete terms, farmers who have a maximum of two employees, excluding seasonal workers, will be able to go to partner stores within 100 km of their farm to offer their products, at the price they want, without negotiation on the part of distributors. The latter then undertake to pay them within thirty days.

In Carrefour , Intermarché, Casino, Auchan and Coopérative U stores, "special signage" will be affixed to the shelves as a "reference point for consumers" . Customers will thus be able to directly identify the products of a local farmer in distress and support them by purchasing their products. Karine Le Marchand hopes that "consumers will be prepared to spend a little more to support them" . On the ground, the Chamber of Agriculture "proposes to act as a relay, with possible health and sales training for producers" .

While distributors acknowledge that it is not easy for a professional to ask for help, Thierry Cotillard calls on them to "be proactive" while Dominique Schelcher advises them to "dare to contact us" . Cathy Heraud, a winemaker in Nouvelle-Aquitaine and participant in the fifteenth season of L' Amour est dans le pré , approached Intermarché to sell her red wine. "Today, I am the one who sets my price" , she says proudly. The producer regrets the government's inaction: "We can't say that we are in difficulty because no one is listening to us, we can't move forward."

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The second pillar of this unprecedented coalition is "aid for overproduction" which affects many sectors. "It unbalances the market with prices and farmers' incomes collapsing, in addition to food waste" , underlines Alexandre Bompard. The Carrefour representative is campaigning "for there to be an alert" . In stores, dedicated signage will alert consumers that a fruit or vegetable sector is in overproduction, "to sell off as much of the surplus as possible" . Last year, nine episodes of overproduction, for example tomatoes or shallots, occurred in France.

Although the approach is currently limited to fruits and vegetables, distributors are not ruling out extending it to other products. With Karine Le Marchand, representatives of the major retailers have also launched an appeal to press outlets to broadcast these episodes of overproduction. "We hope that consumers will be on our side and this measure could also help make them aware that there is a seasonality," smiles Alexandre Bompard.

Third and final pillar presented this Wednesday, the "observatory of future sectors" . "A demographic challenge" while 43% of French farm managers are over 55 years old, posing a problem of generational renewal. "We must think about the future and organize it, with consumer expectations that will evolve" , underlines Thierry Cotillard, from the Mousquetaires group. In detail, the distributors will "create a new tool to analyze the sectors and federate all the skills" . "We set ourselves an objective which is to support producers effectively, as much on Europe, the environment as the economy" , insists Guillaume Darrasse of Auchan.

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For Thierry Cotillard, the first feedback will have to "come from the chambers of agriculture and the unions in order to define the sectors that will need to be consolidated" . In a confident tone, he assures alongside his colleagues that he will "commit and sign the first contracts for the people who will be retraining" with the presentation of "the first conclusions in a year" , on the occasion of the next Agricultural Show . Contracts of three to five years should thus be signed between the different parties. In the conference room, Pol Devillers, vice-president of the agricultural union Jeunes agriculteurs, "welcomes this initiative" . "We were missing the last link, there is a huge amount of work to do together to structure the sectors" , he says.

While the five distributors highlight an "obvious strike force, with a commitment from each and every one" , they deplore the absence of their colleague Michel-Edouard Leclerc, whose Leclerc stores represent 22% of the market in France. "Without him, we can't put pressure on manufacturers" , sighs Karine Le Marchand, who does not hide her irritation. A fourth pillar, initially planned then abandoned because of Leclerc's non-participation, thus aimed to increase the pressure on these players, at a time when commercial negotiations to set prices must end in a few days, in a tense context. "Consumers will draw the consequences" , threatens the host. Alexandre Bompard wants to be more measured and says he is "convinced that little by little the Leclerc stores will join our actions" . "He is not here this morning, he will be here tomorrow" , he sighs. Contacted, the Leclerc group welcomed to Le Figaro "the approach of Karine Le Marchand and our fellow distributors, fully aligned with our philosophy. Our absence from this meeting does not call into question our support for French farmers. On the contrary, we have already implemented numerous initiatives for local agriculture and to ensure fair remuneration for producers."

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The day before this speech, the Agri-Ethique label had not hidden its incomprehension. "Making announcements "to support farmers" a few days before the end of the 2025 trade negotiations, in an extremely tense context, is quite astonishing. If the initiative makes it possible to provide fair remuneration for farmers in the long term, why not. But the model still needs to be challenged and plausible" , indicated Ludovic Brindejonc, director of the label. This Wednesday, once the announcements had been made, he expressed that it was "more coherent today to join a farmers' label rather than create yet another one and with mass distribution" .

Dominique Chargé, President of the Coopération Agricole, made the same observation: "We must welcome any initiative aimed at improving farmers' income. But let's be honest: bringing together five distributors around Karine Le Marchand will not be enough to save French agriculture or rebalance the balance of power." According to him, "a key player is systematically forgotten in these debates: agricultural cooperatives. They bring together 3 out of 4 farmers and represent half of what the French consume each day. Ignoring this organized agricultural production is to weaken farmers and compromise the future of our territories."