Once you’ve seen one wholesale market you’ve seen them all, I thought, but how wrong I was. The French like to do things their own way, and this is no less evident at the Marché International de Rungis when I visit one cold November morning. The arrival of the season’s first batch of Beaujolais calls for celebration, and the traders flock to one of the halls where food is aplenty and a party is in full swing – complete with a pianist playing away in a corner. In between mouthfuls of paté and smoked ham, information officer Philippe Stisi attempts to explain why the market’s set up works so well and what is in store for the future.

“We collaborate with other markets by exchanging ideas and business. For example, we have a joint business venture in China and we helped the founders of a wholesale market in the Ivory Coast. But mainly others look to us as a model of a successful wholesale operation,” he says.

That model could soon be undergoing radical changes, as an ambitious redevelopment plan is being hatched by the market’s president, Stéphane Layani, to rebrand the market as the nation’s gastronomy centre. The background is a national competition in which the city of Lyon, the Burgundy region and Rungis are competing to be crowned ‘City of Gastronomy’, but whether they win or not Rungis plans to build a large-scale centre and call it the ‘City of Gastronomy’. “It will be a meeting place for trade people and consumers alike,” explains Stisi, who outlines plans for a library, museum and university, which would comprise both a cooking school and a place to study all aspects of food production, from field to fork. The idea is that it will establish Rungis as the capital of flavour in the world.”

That’s the thing about the French – they don’t do things by halves. So could London’s markets learn a thing or two from the Parisian model? “The size of Rungis is slightly bigger than Monaco. You can’t compare it to London, where space is very limited and the wholesalers operate in such cramped locations,” says Stisi with a sigh. “They even do the packaging all on the same premises, which is astonishing; they need a reorganisation. Here we have dedicated packaging sections in the cellar and the customers do the packaging themselves.”

Having administered “the reorganisation of the century” when the whole market moved from Les Halles in Paris’ second arrondissement in 1969 out to the suburbs where it still is today, the traders at Rungis are indisputably well qualified to comment on the subject. “At the time it was a gamble,” says Stisi, “and we are still expanding today.”

Alain Alarcon, of Banagrumes, is one of the traders who has benefited from that expansion. The company has been trading at Rungis for decades; Alarcon’s father ran the business from Les Halles. So how does the new site hold up today? “It’s 43 years old and it has aged a bit,” says Alarcon. “Some of the buyers’ walks are a bit narrow, and there could be more space between the halls. On our part, we have had to invest heavily in bringing our cold-store and banana ripening rooms up to date, to increase our capacity from 5,000 tonnes to 6,000t per year.”

Alarcon has a small client base in the UK and would like to do more business here, he says. “There are certain products, like Australian and Californian finger limes, which might be of particular interest to the UK market,” he thinks.

Another trader with British links is Marc Fichel of Paris Ail. Years ago he would pack his car full of samples and drive to the wholesale markets in London and Manchester, which earned him some loyal clients. Today he exports his produce all over Europe including Scandinavia, and further afield to Africa and Asia. He mainly trades in garlic, shallots and onions, as well as potatoes, pumpkins and ‘forgotten veg’ – heritage varieties like Jerusalem artichoke, white, yellow and purple carrots. “Potato varieties like Agata and Bintje is what it’s all about,” according to Fichel.

The composite model of Rungis is an advantage, he says, as all the logistics are in place, but it is not without issues. “If a client buys potatoes as well as fish, for example, he must pack it very carefully, ideally transport it in separate trucks, or the potatoes could end up smelling of fish.”

Didier Ioli, managing director of Paris Select, agrees that being part of a composite market is a huge plus. “It is time saving for customers who operate across the different sectors and the main advantage is the logistics,” he says.

Being able to provide his clients with whatever they need as swiftly as possible is the cornerstone of his business, whose image is very much that of a wholesaler able to source the most premium varieties, often before they have even hit the market. “Producers often contact me to ask them to test new products,” he explains, “as we have the ability to assess whether it will be of interest to clients. For instance, once we tested 12 different varieties of kiwiberry and only two were deemed commercially viable.”

Otherwise, the company’s staple products include exclusive top-fruit varieties like Pink Comice pears, L’Orange de Sonnaville and Rubinette apples – all varieties grown in the Loire Valley – as well as gariguette strawberries and Monts de Venasque cherries. And again emphasising the close links between the market and London, Ioli’s most loyal customers include traders from New Covent Garden Market.

It all shapes up to an exciting time for one of the world’s most important fresh food-supplying sites. —