Joyeux Noel? Not this year

EVEN in the predominantly damp climate of Brittany we can usually count on our farming friends there to be in a generally sunny mood whenever we call.

- Chris Rundle

But not this time. Our arrival with the usual seasonal offering of mince pies and Christmas puddings - to which they have almost become addicted - revealed a cloud of depression shrouding the place like sea mist. "This is not," said Jean-Louis glumly, "a good time to be farming in France."

Now this was a rare admission. The family run a highly successful enterprise growing the famed Roscoff onions and a range of other flavour-some vegetables on the rich alluvial soils close to the coast.

Their location, with the sea on three sides of them, gives them a two-week seasonal advantage over the centre of Brittany so there is always a huge demand from the hospitality sector for their new season's produce, delivered via a 200-kilometre weekly round.

Jean-Louis and his brother now shoulder most of the work though their father, Vincent, remains involved. As a pensioner, however, he is (technically at least) strictly limited by state rules as to the number of hectares he can farm.

Running such a successful business in this remote location in the far northwestern corner of France the family generally remains insulated from the worst effects of any crisis to overtake the farming sector. But this time it's different. And it's all down to one word: Mercosur.

That is the title of the South American bloc with which the European Commission is about to sign an agreement to create the largest tariff-free trading zone in the world. And as far as the French and most other European farmers are concerned the moment the ink dries will be the point at which their fortunes will go into deep and rapid decline.