Pasta makers want more French wheat

On his Puy-Sainte-Réparade farm, facing the Luberon massif, David Mouttet appears as a resistance fighter. While durum wheat cultivation areas have, in a dozen years, been halved in France, this cereal producer maintains its 70 hectares of this species of wheat, specifically intended for transformation into semolina, then into dough. or couscous. “Durum wheat provides around 30% of my income. It’s a culture that requires attention. It grows well on my land, and, as you can see, the cooperative's silo is just on the other side of the field... This motivates us to preserve this production,” explains this farmer who also produces sunflower, sorghum, and seeds. , chickpeas and squash. Still self-sufficient, France does not import durum wheat. Better still, it exports - 75% of volumes outside the European Union. The industry is nevertheless ...