Another year has flown by. And with it went a huge amount of news from the French wholesale industry. What will serve as a timely reminder of 2008?

The tightening of relations in every sector of the fresh produce industry in France will almost certainly be one of the memories we take away with us. The most recent row between wholesalers and retailers is symptomatic of a global situation - in a way, the prevailing system of marketing fruits and vegetables in France no longer seems to be as efficient as it once was.

As the credit crunch bites and the economy becomes more and more troubled, prices are increasingly at the forefront of everyone’s minds. Producers are finding their activities less and less lucrative: the latest figures provided by the ministry of agriculture reveal that growers’ average turnover fell by 15 per cent last year. To some extent we can therefore understand their anger towards retailers and wholesalers, even if the latter are not in a much better situation themselves.

The greengrocers’ desire to manage sourcing of products by themselves is also related to the prices they need to sustain their activities - however, consumers are more reluctant to put their hands in their pockets at the moment. The situation is forcing professionals to become more personal in their dealings, not to say more selfish than ever, and this is sad. It is only through decent and honest discussion, with everyone sitting at the same table, that resolutions to certain issues can be found.

Transparency in prices is the current motto of the French ministry of agriculture over here. “No one should be afraid of it,” said the minister, who has conducted a survey on fruit and vegetable prices in France. The results were recently announced and guess what? It seems the margin the big retailers make on fresh produce is not that big after all, and they regularly seem to reflect ups, but also downs, in prices. I am not sure the man on the street really feels this is the case.

As for margins, everyone in the industry knows that fresh produce shelves are where retailers receive more money, ever since the early days of the supermarkets in France. Transparency is a good thing, but not taking professionals for dummies in the first place is even better.