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Agriculture

France.com — Thu, 20 Mar 2003 02:56:00 +0000

Farms: 730,000
Farmers/farm workers: 910,000
Utilized agricultural area: 30,139,000 hectares

Principal agricultural products in France:

Sugar beet: 1st in the EU, 2nd in the world (29 million tonnes)
Wine: 2nd in the world, 2nd in the EU (5.3 million tonnes)
Milk: 2nd in the EU, 5th in the world (23.3 million tonnes)
Beef and veal: 1st in the EU, 6th in the world (1,815,000 tonnes)
Cereals: 1st in the EU (53.4 million tonnes, including 30 million tonnes of soft wheat, 8th in the world, and 12.5 million tonnes of grain maize)
Oilseeds: 1st in the EU (4.1 million tonnes)

Forests
Woods and forests cover some 15 million hectares, 26% of France’s total area, placing France third in the EU countries in terms of forest area, behind Sweden and Finland. Forest area in France has increased by 35% since 1945 and continues to grow by about 30,000 hectares each year. Most trees are deciduous (2/3), while the remaining third consists of conifers. The National Forestry Office (Office national des Forêts -ONF) is responsible for managing national forests (1,750,000 hectares) and those belonging to local authorities (2,850,000 hectares). The remaining 10,500,000 hectares belong to some 3,800,000 private owners. Forests in France are a source of biological and scenic wealth, a place for excursions and relaxation; they also yield an annual harvest of 55 million cubic metres of timber.

For more information, check out the Agriculture Department

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Industry

France.com — Thu, 20 Mar 2003 02:40:00 +0000

Leading industrial sectors in France :

Construction and civil engineering. Annual production : 797 billion francs ($159.4 billion). Four French groups (Bouygues, SGE, Eiffage and GTM-Entrepose) rank among the top ten in European construction, with an annual turnover of 158 billion francs ($31.6 billion).
Agri-foodstuffs. Annual turnover: 637 billion francs ($127.8 billion). Leading sectors: meat and dairy production, cereals, confectionery, soft and alcoholic beverages. Leading exporter and second-ranked producer in the EU.
Chemicals, rubber and plastics. Annual turnover: 348 billion francs ($69.6 billion), fourth world exporter.
Parachemicals, pharmaceuticals. Annual turnover: 234 billion francs ($46.8 billion), third-ranked world exporter.
Automobile industry. France is the world’s third largest exporter of cars. Renault and PSA (Peugeot-Citroën) are respectively the tenth and 12th largest groups in the automobile sector worldwide. Some 3,558,400 vehicles were produced in 1994.
Metallurgy, metals processing. Annual turnover: 251 billion francs ($50.2 billion)
Telecommunications and postal services. Annual turnover: 205 billion francs ($41 billion). The French telephone network, over 95% digitized, is one of the most modern in the world.
Shipbuilding, aircraft and railway industries. Annual turnover: 116 billion francs ($23.2 billion); 44.5% of production is exported.

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Research & Development

France.com — Thu, 20 Mar 2003 02:37:00 +0000

National R & D expenditure amounts to 190 billion francs ($38 billion) i.e. 2.5% of GDP.

The public sector finances 51% of it and is responsible for operating (building maintenance, salaries, laboratory equipment) the major national research centres, which include the CNRS (all fields), INSERM (medicine), INRA (agronomy), etc..

Privately-financed research focuses on advanced technology sectors such as electronics, aeronautical engineering, chemicals, pharmaceuticals and automobile construction.

France ranks fourth among OECD countries for research, after Japan, Germany and the United States.

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Transportation

France.com — Thu, 20 Mar 2003 02:34:00 +0000

Road network
Densest in the world, longest in the EU with a total of 964,356 km of local, secondary and main roads and motorways, including 7,396 km of motorways (second in Europe).

Rail network
On 1 January 1996, the SNCF (National Railroad Company) was responsible for 31,940 km of track. France holds the world speed record (515 km/h) with its high-speed train (TGV), which runs on 1,268 kilometres of special track.
Annual capacity: 55.5 billion passenger/km (first in Europe excluding the CIS) and 48.9 billion tonnes of freight/km (second in Europe excluding the CIS).

Aviation
Each year 98.7 million passengers and 1.4 billion tonnes of freight are carried; 904 aircraft (planes and helicopters) fly under the French flag.
Paris airports: 558,000 annual aircraft movements (1995), 55.1 million passengers (seventh in the world) and 1.2 million tonnes of freight and mail.

Merchant fleet
Annually 208 ships (total tonnage of 4.3 million) transport 91.5 million tonnes of freight. France’s fleet ranks 25th in the world in tonnage. Marseille is the largest port in France and on the Mediterranean and the third largest in Europe.

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Services

France.com — Thu, 20 Mar 2003 02:22:00 +0000

SERVICE SECTOR

Financial services
Market capitalization of shares listed on the Paris stock exchange totals 2,400 billion francs ($480 billion), 31.5% of French GDP, ranking Paris fifth in the world.

Four French banks are among the world’s top 25: Crédit Agricole (8th), Compagnie Financière Paribas (20th), Groupe Caisses d’Epargne (21st) and Banque Nationale de Paris (22nd).

Insurance
The French insurance sector has consolidated its position as the fifth largest in the world. The life and health classes of insurance are continuing to grow, with 447 billion francs ($89.4 billion) in premium income.

Business in property insurance (including third party liability) is picking up (premiums of 218.5 billion francs, $43.7 billion). The insurance sector provides 197,200 jobs in France.

Tourism
Around 60.5 million foreign tourists visit France each year. France has 17.3 million tourist beds, including 1.2 million in over 40,000 hotels and some 16.1 million in rural gites, camp sites, youth hostels, etc.. This activity generates 900,000 jobs. The trade surplus in this sector rose to 57 billion francs in 1995 ($11.4 billion).

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France.com — Thu, 20 Mar 2003 02:10:00 +0000

France is the world’s second largest exporter of services and farm products and fourth largest exporter of goods (principally durables); it had a trade surplus of 104.5 billion francs ($20.9 billion) in 1995. French exports stood at 1,427 billion francs ($285.4 billion) in 1995, 22% of GDP. Imports amounted to 1,322 billion francs ($264.4 billion).

These figures show a sharp increase in the surplus in durable goods (over 58 billion francs, $11.6 billion), a 20 billion-franc surplus ($4 billion) in farm products, a surplus of 31 billion francs ($6.2 billion) in agri-foodstuffs, a declining energy bill and a rise of 19% in electricity exports.

France’s European Union partners absorb 64% of its trade. The country had a trade surplus of 27 billion francs ($5.4 billion) with the EU in 1995. France’s main customers are Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, Belgium and Spain, along with the United States.

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