The government has authorized a temporary relaxation of the production rules for Abondance, Beaufort and Comté cheeses, due to the drought this summer, which disrupted the feeding of dairy cows, according to three decrees published Wednesday in Official Journal.
These three cheeses benefit from a protected designation of origin (PDO), a European label which normally requires breeders to feed their cows mainly with grass from a defined geographical area, in the Alps for the first two, and in the Jura massif for the county. The lack of rain in recent months having dried out the pastures, producers have obtained exceptional exemptions to feed their herds.
For abundance, breeders will be able to significantly reduce the proportion of grass grazed and use more fodder from outside the appellation zone. For Beaufort, the proportion of hay and grass that must come from the production area is lowered, while more complementary feed can be given to the cows. For the county, the relaxation is more limited: until the end of October, the green corn given to the animals can come, in part, from outside the farm.
A “very degraded” situation everywhere in France
These measures come at a time when the cumulative growth of permanent meadows was, as of August 10, less than a third than that observed on average on the same date over the period 1989-2018, according to the statistical service of the Ministry of Agriculture. The forage situation is “very degraded” in almost all regions, the ministry wrote in mid-August.
The National Institute of Origin and Quality (Inao), which describes the current drought as “historic”, indicates that it has also granted temporary modifications to several other cheese AOPs, notably Reblochon, Cantal, Bleu d’Auvergne and Fourme d’Ambert. These modifications must, however, be made official by orders published in Official Journal.
A heatwave which also impacts the production of fruits and vegetables
Comparable exemptions had already been granted to several of these designations after the drought of 2022.
Suffering tomatoes or apples, grilled meadows, slow-moving egg laying: agriculture is paying a heavy price for the heatwaves and drought that hit the country this summer, with still uncertainties about the consequences in terms of production costs or prices.
Minister Annie Genevard will bring together prefects “from all over France” on Thursday, by videoconference, for an inventory of losses, before unveiling a plan with emergency measures on September 3.
