French vegetable producers are seriously considering increasing their presence in the north of England despite the rigours of the recession.
A delegation of vegetable trade specialists from all over France visited the UK last week to discuss increasing volume and presence in the marketplace.
Delegates visited Booths, Sharrocks Fresh Produce and New Smithfield wholesale market in Manchester.
The visit included a day of discussions including addresses on the UK market, the state of French production and UK importing, as well as business-to-business meetings.
Chris Craven, purchasing manager at Rustler Produce, said the company, part of the Produce World group, was looking to increase its imports from France to help battle the unfavourable currency exchange.
Craven told FPJ: “We are looking to import from France as freight costs from Spain, with the euro as it is, are really quite high so the shorter the distance covered, the lower the costs. Spain is obviously still important but those logistical issues could be addressed more carefully.
“French onions are definitely on the rise and there are a lot of potato growers in France who are willing to rotate their crops so that would be excellent.”
Frédérique Gardel, the commercial attaché for French horticultural and organic products in the UK, said the French could benefit from a unified marketing campaign of the ilk of the successful Foods from Spain promotions.
She told FPJ: “Producers could really benefit from an export subsidy for foreign markets to allow the produce’s origin to be easily identified. At the moment Ubifrance, which handles it, is doing a good job but covers the whole of the French economy so it’s unlikely there would be such a specific focus.
“The French definitely have something to offer with niche products - purple cauliflowers from Brittany for instance ¬- which could be a real help. It’s obviously a difficult time to enter the market but the producers have been very positive about the north of England, what they need to realise is there needs to be real time and investment in the UK market and I think seeing that first hand has helped.”
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