“Macron is putting the show in ruins!”, assures Le Canard Enchaîné in a paper published this Wednesday, before explaining that “the organizers of the Salon de l’Agriculture recorded a drop of half of the entries and a loss of 400,000 to 500,000 euros on February 24, during the president’s rowdy visit. “With an entry price of 16 euros for adults and 9 euros for children aged 6 to 12, 400,000 to 500,000 euros of revenue have evaporated, not counting the shortfall in the different stands. Or 30 to 40% of the salon’s turnover,” specifies the satirical newspaper.
A dishonest calculation according to the organizers of the show, who deplore the method chosen to assess their shortfall on Saturday. “I have never seen the exact turnover of the salon. Not only is this calculation dishonest, but above all it is thoughtless,” ironically launches Arnaud Lemoine, director of the National Center for Agricultural Exhibitions and Competitions (Ceneca), owner and organizer of the Agricultural Show, who specifies that it is impossible to evaluate this amount so simply.
“They simply subtracted the number of entries recorded on Saturday from the number of entries made on the first Saturday of the show last year, and they multiplied by the price of the adult ticket at 16 euros. But it is a raw, primary figure which in no way corresponds to real criteria,” he continues. Just on the number of entries, Arnaud Lemoine specifies that he takes into account paid entries of course, but also exhibitor badges, journalists or even so-called “service” badges, which are not strictly speaking chargeable.
“Yes, I imagine that faced with the hustle and bustle of Saturday morning, some visitors must have hesitated to come in the afternoon, but Emmanuel Macron’s visit on Saturday is not the only explanation for the lower attendance that day – there,” adds the show director. The latter also recalls that, for the first time in a long time, the first weekend of the event fell during the school holidays of Parisians, potentially leaving far from the capital. Which can also explain lower attendance, according to him.
And he continues: “the salon’s turnover is made up of so many different things.” That of the organizers is made up of “entrance tickets, revenue linked to the sale of derivative products and food, but also the sales price per m2 paid by the exhibitors, as well as the price paid by the latter for the layout », more or less important stands. As for that of the exhibitors, it is often “difficult” to know it, since not everyone communicates it.
“You would have to be a great master of accounting to estimate the financial consequences of the President of the Republic’s visit to the show, I myself am unable to tell you,” concludes Arnaud Lemoine. Last year, more than 90,000 people came for the first Saturday of the show, compared to 60,000 this year. That is to say a third less, according to the director of the show, who specifies that since, between Saturday and today, the trend is “rather upward” in terms of attendance. But nothing can, at this stage, predict what the total attendance will be at this exhibition fair which will close its doors this Sunday March 3 and even less its turnover therefore.
Questioned on this subject this Wednesday morning on LCI, Agnès Pannier-Runacher did not comment on the figure put forward by Le Canard, but judged it “very unfortunate” that “300 to 400 people” many of whom were “not ‘elsewhere not farmers’ are at the origin of a ‘violent situation’ at the Agricultural Show which should normally ‘be a party’. “We are politically responsible, we must be accountable, but it is certainly not by pushing the police or trying to break through doors that we really support the cause of the farmers,” she added. The Minister Delegate to the Minister of Agriculture and Food Sovereignty even pointed out the presence of “certain political figures”, who did not hesitate to “instrumentalize the anger of farmers”.