While we in Ireland are busy pushing the "Buy Irish" campaign, the French are finding the same difficulties with their produce - namely that of price
Socialist Minister for Economic Renewal Arnaud Montebourg believes in it, but what do the honest hard-pressed taxpayers of France make of it all? The “Made in France” label that has been so enthusiastically pushed by the minister does come with a cost to them, it seems.
On average, buying French instead of imports costs between €1,270 and €3,770 more per year per household. This is according to an article in economic daily newspaper Les Echos earlier this week, which cites a report carried out by the Paris-based national think-tank Centre d’Etudes Prospectives et d’Informations Internationales. On a monthly basis, therefore, buying French costs the average French household between €100 and €300 more.
“A quarter of our consumer spending is on goods coming from a third-party country,” write Charlotte Emlinger and Lionel Fontagné, authors of the study. This is what “allows the end-user/consumer to realise substantial savings as a result of their buying power.” The widest gaps between Made-in-France items and imports were found to be in leather (24% price difference) and general clothing (80% !).