Launched in 2000, the Fel’Engagement initiative has recently been renewed between the French wholesalers’ federation and the authorities.

Fel’Engagement is aimed at developing quality controls within companies, as well as controls made by the wholesalers themselves according to procedures defined by the tenants authority.

The philosophy of this was, and still is, to give more responsibility to professionals in this field. And it was also a question of trust. At the time some might have said the industry was in no danger of having a shortage of quality procedures. But, in fact, six years later, the initiative seems to have modified the relation between the wholesalers and their upstream and downstream partners.

The French wholesalers’ federation recently carried out a survey to evaluate the impact of the Fel’Engagement programme since its creation. The results are definitely not bad. More than 40 per cent of the federation members are engaged in the procedures: 157 companies are actively part of the Fel’Engagement and 18 more should join the club in the next months.

The initiative intended to smooth over the relations in the industry and the objective has been achieved for the most part. More than half of those interviewed say their relationship with suppliers is better.

Better yet, they feel quality levels have increased because products are more heavily scrutinised and managed more efficiently. The results are even more promising regarding relations with the control authorities. The number of fines and warnings generated by the tenants authority concerning uniformity of product information is notably falling among the Fel’Engagement wholesalers. This is crucial as the initiative is based on trust between the parts. At the same time, the tenants authority noticed these warnings were spreading across the country.

Fel’Engagement is now strongly established in the trade but there is always more to do. For the Federation, it is an everyday job to convince more wholesalers to join the initiative. Increasing communication will certainly be necessary. For the industry this is part of a global strategy as president Bernard Piton underlined: “This initiative is structuring our activities to develop wholesale strategic value. It also provides a positive image of our industry,” he said.

And the scope may be even larger, according to Piton. “The whole fresh produce industry must understand the necessity to generate its own initiatives in this field as it is obvious public service should be less present in the next decade. Fel’Engagement is a good example,” he added.