This accusation was made by three French Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in a report published at the beginning of October. According to this report, France is exporting low-end food products to Africa, which are harmful to health in the long run.
The NGOs Action Climat, Greenpeace and Oxfam revealed in a report that the broiler, pork and dairy products sectors are the main ones concerned by these harmful commercial practices in Africa. These sectors are owned in France by large manufacturers such as Bigard, Agromousquetaire, LDC, Lactalis and Cooperl. And paradoxically, the country imports very good quality products from African countries. The maneuver behind this shameful practice is to compete with producers who practice relatively lower costs. France thus exports 42% of its milk, 39% of its pork and 25% of its poultry.
In this competitive momentum, these large French manufacturers send re-fattened milk to Africa and in particular to Algeria, which is the leading buyer of skimmed milk powder and fat powder. It is therefore milk powders refattened with vegetable matter (MGV) that are sold on the African market. These milk powders are diluted with butter oil or palm oil, coconut oil or copra. This harmful mixture is sent to developing countries with preference for West Africa, with unbeatable prices. Indeed these dairy products once fattened, are sold at 0.20 euro per liter, much less than the milk produced locally in these countries! Another way to kill local African productions. In addition, these products are not even considered in Europe as dairy products. Moreover, no country of the old continent consumes them.
Regarding pork and poultry, France sends frozen cuts to the African continent with degraded textures on delivery. For poultry, these are spent laying hens, not consumed in Europe. These categories of frozen products represent 87% of exports to Africa in 2010, 96% in 2015 and 97% in 2021. In an excerpt, the report highlights a consequence of this French economic model: “This export orientation is all the more problematic since intensive and industrialized systems capable of being competitive on the international market produce, at the end of the chain, often compete with the livestock sectors of developing countries”.
For France, African countries are considered as clearance markets. According to the report, the main exit markets for France are Benin (28%), Congo (13%), Gabon (11%) and the Democratic Republic of Congo (10%). The clearance markets here constitute commercial zones for products which cannot be sold, nor consumed, on the French national market.
The report emphasizes that these practices are harmful for France, because these farming methods have a definite impact on the environment in terms of nitrate pollution and an increase in greenhouse gases. But the same report points out that the effects are even more detrimental for Africa. First on the health level, then on the economic level.
