by: Ethan Huff
(Pure Information) Half of the meals manufacturing vegetation owned and operated by Cofigeo, a big French meals conglomerate, have shut down as the corporate says its power prices are simply too excessive to remain in full operation.
4 of Cofigeo’s eight meals manufacturing vegetation are actually closed, studies point out – these amounting to 80 p.c of the corporate’s complete manufacturing capability. Which means that Cofigeo will solely be producing 20 p.c of its regular quantity of meals for the foreseeable future.
Cofigeo owns a number of different main French meals manufacturers together with William Saurin, Garbit and Raynal, and Roquelaure. (Associated: Again within the fall, French glass maker Duralex halted all operations as a result of it might probably now not afford to pay for overpriced power.)
With this 80 p.c scale-down in operations at Cofigeo comes a 66 p.c discount within the firm’s workforce. We’re instructed that 800 of Cofigeo’s 1,200 employees are affected by this partial closure of the corporate’s manufacturing amenities.
An announcement was made about all this on December 6 of final yr, and it simply got here into impact on January 2. Cofigeo vegetation in Capdenac, Pouilly-sur-Serre, Camaret-sur-Aigues, and Lagny have all since shuttered, in keeping with French information outlet Le Figaro.
“This resolution goals to deal with the spectacular improve in its power prices (fuel and electrical energy essential for cooking and sterilizing cooked dishes and recipes), which will likely be multiplied by 10 from the start of the yr,” the corporate introduced in an announcement this week.
“Vital” quantity of meals spoilage anticipated as France enters darkish winter marked by energy cuts and blackouts
Based on Cofigeo president Mathieu Thomazeau, power prices are skyrocketing to such a excessive diploma in France that it’s merely now not attainable to do enterprise as traditional.
“It’ll go in a single day from 4 million to 40 million euros,” he instructed the media.
That is quick changing into an issue throughout many sectors of the French economic system as power costs proceed to skyrocket. Not simply producers but additionally retailers are being affected by it, with Perifem, a federation of French grocery store chains, saying on the finish of 2022 that anticipated energy cuts and blackouts this darkish winter threaten to trigger widespread meals spoilage.
Many supermarkets lack the flexibility and even simply the time to organize for these outages, which authorities officers initially downplayed as “unlikely” earlier than later admitting that there’ll most likely not be sufficient energy obtainable to maintain the lights on in France within the coming months.
“Now we have by no means skilled this case … shops are very poorly outfitted immediately with turbines,” stated Perifem basic delegate Franck Charton concerning the dire state of affairs his nation faces.
“We won’t throw away frozen merchandise which have for probably the most half extra thermal inertia. However, for contemporary merchandise that don’t final two hours, there’ll certainly be a major waste.”
Then there are the continued “issues” and “points” with France’s nuclear energy era fleet, which is already midway out of operation as a consequence of “routine upkeep.” Extra nuclear energy vegetation in current days are having added points, which might end in authorities officers having to ration what little power stays.
After January 15, warned Emmanuelle Wargon, France’s Power Regulation Fee president, France may very well be in dire straits on the first signal of a chilly snap – present climate situations are unseasonably heat, we’re instructed, which has given France a short lived reprieve from what’s quickly to return.
Manufacturing of fertilizer, an energy-intensive course of essential to develop meals, can be threatened by the continued power inflation state of affairs. Will there be sufficient meals to go round as soon as all is claimed and performed right here?
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