France, India plan to form partnership to increase farm trade

France and India plan to form a “strategic partnership” in agriculture and food-processing to boost farm and food trade between the two nations, ministers for both countries said. The European Union exports about €68bn ($95bn) of agricultural products a year, with India accounting for €200m, French Agriculture Minister Bruno Le Maire said at a meeting with reporters in Paris today. “That is totally insufficient and in no way in line with the size and power of India,” Le Maire said at a press conference with Subodh Kant Sahay, India’s minister of food- processing industries. The ministers met in Paris together with representatives from Danone SA, Bonduelle SCA, Roquette Freres SA and Groupe Lactalis, according to Le Maire. France and India will cooperate on global regulation of the agricultural markets, La Maire said, without providing details. “We need global regulation,” Le Maire said. “It’s abnormal and dangerous that there is no global regulation for agricultural products.”