Agricultural press France – how do you reach French farmers?

Agriculture, agricultural engineering and cultivation in France

Which French agricultural media exist in the industry and which are best suited for which target groups? As in Germany top agrar and agrarheute give an all-round view of what is happening in the sector, La France Agricole does the same in France. In the area of agricultural engineering, the French counterpart to Profi is clearly Matériel Agricole and when it comes to arable farming, Réussir Grandes Cultures and Cultivar dominate. The GMC team gives you an overview of the media landscape of the agricultural press in France.

Land use and number of agricultural holdings in France

France’s total area of 549,087 km² is almost 200,000 km² bigger than Germany’s. More than half of the total area of France (54%) of this half a million km² is used for agriculture. Forestry comes in second place with 25%. That leaves 21% of the total area for living space, sport, leisure (6%), transport (3%), industry and services (2%) and other areas (10%). Status as of 2015.

Wine, dairy and cereals are examples of often generated products in France. In the area of cereals, France has climate-related advantages compared to Germany: crops such as wheat require a particularly large amount of heat. This is why France also produces a lot more wheat (5.1 million hectares) than Germany does (3.13 million hectares).

The development of the farm size structure in Metropolitan France (the part of France belonging to the European continent) shows a clear upward trend compared to the number of farms: Where in 1988 there were still around 1,000,000 farms with an average size of less than 30 hectares the number of holdings in year 2000 shrank to approx. 650,000 holdings with a diameter of 43 ha and in 2010 to approx. 500,000 holdings with Ø 56 ha. The trend continued in 2016 with only around 440,000 holdings with a diameter of 63 ha. This decrease in the number of agricultural holdings with a simultaneous increase in the average area used corresponds roughly to the situation in other European countries.

Brief presentation of the French agricultural media

When speaking of the most known agricultural magazines in France, you mostly come across La France Agricole and Matériel Agricole.

La France Agricole gives an all-round view of what is going on in the industry, appears weekly and is probably best compared to German top agrar. It has the highest edition of the industry magazines, which is print + digital 110,019 copies, including 94,488 print copies. Such a reach has its price: the advertising price for a whole colored page in La France Agricole leads the French price list at € 16,500.

In the field of agricultural engineering, Matériel Agricole is the absolute front runner and comparable to German Profi. Matériel Agricole is the first source of information when it comes to agricultural engineering as well as technical innovations and trends. The main target groups are large companies, dealers and contractors. It is published eleven times a year and has a print run of 41,560 copies, of which 15,230 were paid. The ad price per full color page is only € 8,910, around half the price in La France Agricole.

If a company wants to specify its target group in the field of agriculture and agricultural engineering more precisely, other specialist titles such as Terre-Net Magazine, Réussir Grandes Cultures, Cultivar or Perspectives Agricoles offer a good platform. The magazines Entraid ’and Entrepreneurs des Territoires are popular sources of information for machine ring members or rather contractors.

Would you like to be positioned more international in your advertising in France or other countries? GMC helps you to find the right medium for your target group. For more information on the national and international agricultural press, please contact us.