IENICA REPORT: FRANCE

Executive Summary

In the wake of the saturation of traditional markets for European agricultural production, regulations were promulgated in the 1990s that have considerably modified agricultural operations. A number of convergent incentives have combined to increase interest in non food uses for crops. These are:

Programmes to set aside farmlands, leaving them fallow, and the option of planting industrial crops on these lands;

Tax exemptions for biofuels, and plants to tax environmentally toxic products;

Emergence of many national and Europe-wide programmes designed to stimulate research and industrial work on new market outlets for these crops (AGRICE, ALTENER, European demonstration programmes, etc.);

Environmental stakes that weigh in favour of industrial processing of the crops;

Crop - low input requirements for certain crops

- preservation of biodiversity in soils

Product - compostability

- recyclability

- renewable feedstock

Consumer demand for products that respect the environment and the body (cosmetics);

Preservation of the socioeconomic landscape (jobs, self-sufficiency, exploitation of lands that can no longer be planted in mass-grown traditional crops).

A number of studies have been carried out with a view to developing non-food uses of these crops, and have highlighted many potential applications for industrial crops processed for non-food uses.

Highly promising possibilities are emerging for oilseed plants, a sector in which biolubricants, surfactants obtained from feedstock derived from agricultural resources, and various additives for plastics, paints, inks and plant protection products are already produced on a medium scale.

Starch from grains also has a strong potential for applications in the pulp and paper industry, where its use is on the rise. Starch in various forms (native, modified or hydrolysed) can be recovered and converted to valuable products- glues, surfactants, sequestering agents, absorbent materials, fermentation substrates- for a wide range of markets. European regulations adopted in 1985 and instituting a system of production rebates have reinforced the development of these market outlets.

Fibre plants may also find various applications in paper making, textiles and the construction industry, given their high lignocellulose content and specific agronomic characteristics such as suitability for cultivation on soils not adapted to mass-grown traditional crops, moderate input requirements, crop diversification. In the medium term they are sure to find their place in European crop plantings.

Medicinal, aromatic and perfume plants, traditionally processed for pharmaceuticals and cosmetics, are likely to find new outlets as a result of the search for new properties and as a response to consumer demand for so-called "natural" products.

All of these activities are in a position to develop their non-food outlets in the short or medium term. A number of obstacles remain, however, that are a hindrance to the real expansion of non food uses for these crops.

Nonetheless, a number of proposals that are broadly applicable for all these feedstock can be formulated as of now at the European level:

Construct a regulatory framework that fosters the development of products derived from agricultural resources.

Consolidate a long term policy that pays particular attention to industrialists’ needs regarding a stable supply of feedstock.

Set up a partnership involving all the actors of these various branches of activity, in order to ascertain and co-ordinate production capacity and demand for raw materials.

Lastly, and more globally: create a full- fledged non-food market that is not dependant on fluctuation of production and/or prices of crops destined for food markets.

The merits of biocompatible products are manifest, and they deserve to be taken into consideration in the present European context in which environmental concerns and social development are high priorities.