In old French, “Finistère” means “the end of the world”. The western-most part of France might appear to some as isolated from the mainstream of Paris and the country’s other metropolis. Stuck between the English Channel and the Atlantic Ocean does not always make for a comfortable existence. But Finistère remains nevertheless one of the more active areas in the French fruit and vegetable production patchwork.
More than two thirds of its surface area comprises agricultural fields, with the north of the district ranked French number-one for cauliflower, artichoke and potato volumes. It takes a lead role in ensuring Brittany reigns supreme in the sector; the region produces more than half of the vegetables grown in France.
The first of the aforementioned production giants - Prince de Bretagne, or Brittany Prince - is well known to the UK industry. There are three auctions within the co-op’s network, SICA Saint-Pol de Léon, and Saint-Malo and Paimpol in the neighbouring district of Cotes-d’Armor. The three are connected, to minimise fluctuations in price.
SICA generates a £174 million turnover, primarily for its vegetables, but also flowers and plants. Cauliflowers are the leading line, with more than 100m heads produced per year, followed by tomatoes (35,000t), chicory (15,000t) and broccoli (12,000t).
All perishable products are sold through the auction, while shallots and onions are mostly sold in the now more conventional manner. Iceberg lettuce is making more of a mark, thanks to contracts with the blooming French pre-packed salad market.
The Saint-Pol auction also offers a packing option, with vegetables bought on day one and delivered and packed on day two. One third of Prince de Bretagne’s tonnage goes abroad, with Germany the leading destination (46 per cent) and the UK weighing in at 15 per cent. Cauliflowers represent more than 60 per cent of the export tonnage, but artichokes and tomatoes are also top performers outside France. Gilles Moal, deputy manager of SICA, says a full appreciation of the export markets is key: “We work and evolve in a very open and competitive market. So we have to face the competition from other large producing countries like Spain and Italy and, to some extent, British production,” he explains.
Moal has a clear view on the present and future of the auction. “Producers were given the capability to auction through the internet two years ago,” he says. Subsequently, we have experienced a fall in physical presence in front of the needle. But, despite the foreseeable development of the internet, the auction will remain as it is for at least the next five years, as there remains a very human need to see and touch the product before evaluating the price.”
As in any co-operative, the ultimate decision makers, of course, are the producers.
Also within Finistère’s midst, Saveol, the second giant, is a farm co-operative with 150 members, and has established itself as grower of the largest range of tomatoes in France, with no less than 22 varieties in its mix. The £24.4m (2006 figures) co-op produces around 20,000 tonnes of tomatoes a year. Besides tomatoes, the Saveol flagship offer, it also produces cucumbers (2,000t), raspberries, and has launched “Fraise de Plougastel”, a strawberry which for a long time was limited to the Breton frontiers, but is now marketed across the country in large volume.
Saveol has become something of a connoisseur in heritage tomato varieties, building this into its long-term strategy. Working in partnership with plant breeders, the co-op has brought forgotten cultivars back into fashion under its Heirloom Flavours portfolio. Leading the way are cultivars such as Coeur de Boeuf, an opulently shaped, rustic-looking fruit, Crimean Black, with its purple-brown skin, and Verona, a ridged tomato well known in Italy. The latest addition to the production line is Pineapple Tomato, a golden tomato with glowing ruddy tints and a pulpy flesh that resembles a pineapple.
Other lines include Saveol’s exclusive Victoria and Florentina cherry tomatoes, and the Ruby cocktail variety, marketed in three different packaging formats, including the wood punnets normally used for oysters or baby potatoes.
Some might say this segmentation is a little over the top. But not Richard Nouhaud, Saveol’s managing director: “There are more than 20,000 tomato varieties in the world; we produce 22 of them, which puts it into perspective,” he says. “We’ve repositioned our product offer based on five years of marketing feedback.”
Exports represent 20 per cent of the co-op’s activity, but it remains a small player in the UK. “Our marketing policy does not really comply with the demands of the main British retailers,” explains Nouhaud. “Retail branding and low prices do not fit well with our products, which are mainly sold in upmarket, specialised outlets.”
LABS ADD PROTECTIVE LAYER
As the use of plant protection products is due to be strictly modified by the European Union through REACH legislation, the fresh produce industry is busy searching for alternative ways to protect crops and reduce its impact on the environment.
In Finistère, there is a well-developed, tight-knit network of laboratories and companies which have embarked on this search for some time already. After many years of working and - to be honest - some mocking from a certain part of the industry, the first operational results seem finally to be at hand.
The institutional side of the Breton plant protection network is highly influential. Located on the coast of the English Channel, the Station Biologique de Roscoff has long been researching and educating in the specific field of marine biology and seaweed. The work it has carried out on the algal defence mechanism against pathogens, and its approach to genomics, has already led to some interesting results for vegetable producers, says Philippe Potin. “Our research isolated some molecules in the laminaria type seaweed that trigger its defences when attacked by a pathogen. These molecules might be used, once technologically processed, in pest management,” he adds.
A partnership with Goëmar, a plant protection products supplier based in Saint-Malo, firstly gave a product, Iodus 2, suitable for cereals. Further down the line, the company hopes to market a strawberry blight protection product in 2008, once it has received the necessary accreditation.
Agrauxine, a company created in 2002, specialises in micro-organism production and gives another example of the area’s dynamism in this field. Pascale Boutelant says: “When we were looking for financial support at the beginning, we were clear that the company would not generate any turnover for three years, because we first had to lead with our research and development.” Today, the company’s turnover is £4.6 million and it has put down roots in Brittany, in Quimper, and in Lyon. The company should go public next year.
Agrauxine markets a full range of natural protection products and fertilisers. Its next product is aimed at tomatoes and strawberries, and specific diseases such as grey rot.
GOLDEN SOIL FOR SPUD PLANTS
Thanks to the positive effect of the Gulf Stream and because of its steady rainfall, Brittany provides perfect conditions for growing potatoes.
The region also benefits from the fact it encounters few natural diseases, and this is controlled by a minimal introduction of outside varieties and no non-indigenous potato plants.
Finistère remains a stronghold of plant production, led by the presence of big players such as Germicopa, and supported by smaller, more specialised companies. In 2007, the Spunta variety was the dominant plant, followed by Charlotte (Germicopa) and father Safrane (Gopex). Exclusive varieties (younger than 25 years) are developing fast. They represented less than 47 per cent of acreage in 1995, but have grown to more than 60 per cent today. Certified tonnage slightly increased during the last season, to 109,780 tonnes (up 2.1 per cent), and the industry has seen the rise of relatively new varieties such as Elodie, Alaska and Atlas compensate for a decrease in Spunta tonnage.
Eighty per cent of production is marketed by collectors/distributors linked to plant producers by contracts. The rest is directly sold upstream. Export is strong, especially to eastern Europe and the Middle East, along with the traditional European hotbeds of Spain, Italy and UK, which take 2,400t a year.
Elorn Plants is a collaboration of five plant producers. It represents some 400 hectares of plantings in five separate locations, and can count on 17,000 square metres of covered facilities, 10,000t of cool warehouse, and another 10,000t of ambient storage capacity. “We directly own four varieties: Elodie, Justine, Floriane and Canelle,” says Bernard Le Bot, “and our vocation is to develop our portfolio in the future.”
The major sales point of Elorn Plants is its involvement beyond the normal sphere of breeder influence, he adds. “We export our plants to 20 countries: Algeria, Lebanon, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, etc… This has allowed us to build a huge network of contacts, so we can implement cultural trials to develop our own privately owned varieties,” Le Bot says.
PASSION FOR MAKING BABIES
Meingwen Armor Services (MAS) was founded in the 1980s and came into the fruit and vegetable arena with a range of new and original products, such as baby vegetables, alternative salads, edible flowers, seaweeds, mushrooms and older varieties of vegetables that had long been absent from consumer minds.
It is fair to say that MAS has been a pioneer in this field, with its brand - Hotgame - a play on the much-used French expression haut de gamme, and Les Farfadets.
Located in Taulé, in the north of the Finistère district, MAS works in partnership with a co-operative of 54 small producers in the district. Crops are consolidated in two packing stations, the first covering 1,400 square metres for conventional vegetables, the other a 2,000sqm affair for the organic range, that sells under the Biomas brand.
More than 200 different fresh vegetables are processed at MAS, which exports to Asia and the United Arab Emirates, but mostly to European destinations. Around 70 per cent of its baby vegetable volume is exported, and a chunk goes to the UK through specialised wholesalers, packers for the organic shelves, upmarket restaurants and the baby food market.
To offer such a breadth of products requires extremely close attention to detail and a sharp focus on the evolving trends in the marketplace, says François Le Lagadec, MAS manager. “Curiosity is essential and a constant of our job is the need to find new varieties,” he explains. “We test out every idea that is brought up by our clients and producers.
“Of course there is a marketing challenge, but do not underestimate the passion of everyone involved in the process. For instance, one of the newer vegetables we have in production is a baby purple carrot “from the mist”, which evokes that passion, but shrouds it in Celtic mystery.”
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