Paris, Aug 6 - French fruit and vegetable farmers on Thursday dismissed as paltry a government emergency aid offer of 15 million euros ($21.57 million) for those who face having to pay back hefty EU subsidies now deemed illegal.
France is negotiating with the European Commission over the total sum owed, estimated at some 500 million euros, and Agriculture Minister Bruno Le Maire said the process of investigating the issue was now open-ended.
Le Maire met with protesting farmers on Thursday to offer support, but his proposal was seen as disappointing. "Fifteen million euros, that's nothing," said Laurent Ducurtil, president of a regional fruit and vegetable producers' association.
Ducurtil said the aid was limited to 10,000 euros per farm, which he said would be a tiny sum for big farms with 100 or 200 employees. He expected farmers to stage further protests.
Le Maire had already angered farmers, who are struggling with falling food prices and income, by announcing on Monday he had accepted the European Union's demand that France recoup certain subsidies paid between 1992 and 2002.
The EU ruled in January that the state aid give to support producer prices and incomes had contravened European farm policy.
This week, EU Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel granted a French request for a deadline extension to Sept. 29 to explain how it would recover the cash.
Le Maire said on Thursday Brussels had agreed to another extension, with no specific deadline.
Delegates from farmers' associations all over France expressed their disappointment with the offer, though some said they hoped this could lead to a better result.
"We're not satisfied, that's really the lowest sum they put forward," said Pierre Veyrat, director of the fruit and vegetables section at organisation Confederation Paysanne.
Bruno Dupont, president of France's national federation of fruit producers, said the offer was a "first step".
The French fruit and vegetable sector is Europe's third-largest, but growers increasingly complain about being swamped with cheaper produce from other European countries that have lower labour costs.