Fresh produce has made a strong impression on observers of the presidential race in France, as FPJ’s French colleagues at FLD recently pointed out.

On this side of the Channel, we still almost fondly remember the slogan “Eat apples!”, coined by Jacques Chirac in 1995, which helped him to win the hearts and votes of French citizens. The candidates in the 2007 campaign have definitely not forgotten and each of them likes to show their love for fruit and vegetables.

Well, at least fruit. Centrist candidate François Bayrou chose orange as his campaign colour and recently distributed thousands of clementines to his supporters. Good business for the wholesaler who provided them. Visiting a melon plant in Guadeloupe, right-wing runner Nicolas Sarkozy confessed he participated in the melon harvest in the south of France in his youth. According to people in the know, Sarkozy’s melon-picking days were spent in the fields at l’Isle-sur-Sorgue.

Socialist candidate Ségolène Royal hasn’t chosen a fruit or vegetable to hang her manifesto on. May I be so bold as to put forward the Ecuadorian banana variety Royal as an option? Unfortunately, I am not sure it would be a wise political move considering the current CMO situation on this subject.

More seriously, France’s winter vegetable industry is traversing one of its most difficult periods. Mild weather increased production and made prices dive, while, simultaneously, consumers opted to spend their money on fruit. As usual in France, producers accused retailers of sabotage, while retailers asked producers to better control their marketing.

So the ministry of agriculture decided to bring everyone to the negotiating table. The meeting was on March 21, the first day of spring, which was not an ideal symbol on which to reflect. Fifty representatives of the industry answered the invitation. What could the minister expect from such a gathering? Especially as he had no concrete solutions to offer.

The vegetable producers’ union quickly slammed the door on reconciliation after a heated debate with the retailers’ union president. Another meeting is scheduled for this month. Interfel backed the vegetable producers and is working on a “common deontology”* to get out of the crisis. Now, I’m a journalist, and I don’t know what that really means.

Maybe this part of the industry needs a presidential candidate to clearly put forward his fondness for lettuce or cauliflower… l

*The theory of duty or moral obligation - in case any FPJ readers were wondering. We’re sure you knew that anyway.

Topics