« The food Euro » : what food expenses pay for ?

By means of calculation realised on the inputs-outputs matrices of the national accounting, the amount of the French food consumption is decomposed into importations, taxes on products and added values induced in every industry group. From the added values, the remunerations induced in the various industry group by the food demand are calculated : salaries, gross operating profit ; imports and taxes being « remunerations to abroad and State ». The results shows the relatively thin share of the agriculture in the distribution of the added value induced by the food demand, and the weight more significant of Services and Trade industry groups. So, for € 100 € of food expenses in France in en 2009, the added value formed in the Agriculture and fishery industry group is € 6.8. Those of Services and Trade are, respectively, € 18.5 and € 21.3 The importations represent a quarter of the « food euro » in 2009, with € 12,4 for food imports and € 12,6 € for imports of inputs. The share of a given industry group in the « food euro » depends on two elements : - the technical coefficients linking the input consumption in product from this given industry group with the products used in the production and the distribution of food, - the ratio of value added of this given industry group. In this matter, the decrease of agricultural prices due to the CAP reforms since 1992 mostly explains the decreasing trend of added the value induced in agriculture by food demand, noticed here from 1995 to 2009. In 2007 and in 2008, the rise of commodities prices, in wich agricultural products, has, depending on years, different effects on the share of the agriculture in the « food euro » : favorable to agriculture in 2007, the « prices scissors » become unfavorable in 2008. The decrease of the agricultural added value in the « food euro » becomes more marked in 2009 under the influence of a new fall in agricultural prices. In addition to this « prices effects » on the distribution of the « food euro », there are more structural evolutions in the formation on the value of the food products, in particular the increasing incorporation of services. It takes place not only in the food-processing sector but also in the whole of industry groups (other processing industry, trade, transport, services themselves), of which a part of their products, including services (temporary labour, advertising, marketing studies, bank and assurance services…), is used as inputs at various levels of the formation of the value of food products.