The summer of 2009 will certainly be remembered as the one when the traditional summerfruit crisis really reached a climax.

As usual, produce prices have been sliding down to some all-time lows. More than a dozen summer produce favourites - melons, peaches, nectarines, apricots and lettuce, among others - are officially considered to have reached crisis point.

France’s new minister of agriculture has taken over the reins of the crisis and went to meet the producers in their lair, in sunny Vaucluse. He spoke directly to them, bringing up the idea of developing contracts between producers and retailers - the latter being a word the former don’t usually like to hear. A bit of harsh truth is sometimes no bad thing.

At the same time, in the sunny district of Perpignan in French Catalonia, local stonefruit producers blocked the border with Spain to prevent Spanish trucks from entering the French market. They also threw tonnes of fruit in a wide range of places in the area, especially the private import market of Saint Charles.

Unions said that this demonstrated the attitude of wholesalers, who don’t play fair game with product of French origin and prefer to supply retailers with imported fruit and vegetables.

This certainly made Bernard Piton, the president of the fruit and vegetable wholesalers’ union, unhappy.

“To confuse a wholesaler with a Saint Charles market operator doesn’t help clear up this situation,” he said. “French wholesalers are totally committed to promoting and offering French produce and their role is also to present a whole range of products from different origins.”

This summer will certainly be a hot one, regardless of what the weather does.

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