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Wednesday, 16 April 2008 |
Oliver Taylor meets the founder of Paysans online, a farmer- and customer-friendly business supplying quality food from Marmande
Patricia Juthiaud is an idealist – but with her feet firmly on the ground. Living in the Lot-et-Garonne for 30 years, she is very familiar with the increasing problem faced by the small agricultural producer: the supermarket chains fix the buying prices, well below the cost of production, then sell to the public at enormous mark-up.
Apart from local village markets, the farmer can’t find a practical way of selling his quality food to enough customers at a realistic price. Result: more and more frustration and good producers being gradually forced out of business, while the discriminating public has to make do with mass-produced food. No surprise that
recently some market gardeners protested by dumping 3,000 heads of lettuce in the streets of Marmande (47) to greet a ministerial visit.
Rather than accept this situation, in December 2002, Patricia, with a few friends developed an existing farmers’ collective into a new organisation (a small, limited company with no outside finance, rather than a non-profit association) using the power of the internet to link small farm producers with customers across France, under the very apt name ‘Paysans.fr.’
The network has more than 100 carefully chosen producers, mostly in the South-West, as partners signed up to a charter which promotes quality, bio-diversity, respect for the environment and personal involvement of the individual farmer at all stages. The aim is to enable them to live a satisfying and independent life while providing healthy, varied and tasty food to the widest possible range of customers.
Now a highly professional business, operating at a warehouse outside Marmande, and centres on a well-designed website with an office staff of only three. There are more than 8,000 customers on the books, who place their regular orders online based on hampers, each designed to provide a week’s woth of varied and balanced menus for different sizes of households. The contents change from week to week according to what’s in season – all the food has to be fresh – and can be tailored to individual preferences.
Each week, the producers (except for the few who are too far away) bring the material for these orders in reusable packaging to the warehouse, where it goes at once into refrigerated storage. Then a team of préparateurs sets to work, assembling the individual hampers from customers’ online orders and grouping them by delivery area. Everything is promptly delivered door-to-door: their own three refrigerated lorries cover the Grand Sud-ouest, while delivery subcontractors operate over other parts of France, including Paris and Île-de-France, Lille, Lyon, Saint-Étienne and the South-East (Nice, Monaco, Toulon and Marseille).
Their impressive range of products includes meat, poultry, fish, fruit, vegetables, dairy products, drinks and all sorts of conserves – even a few cooked dishes – in a list that specifies origin and methods. Of course, there is an emphasis on organic, now up to 80% of the total, but Patricia insists that it has to be quality (“bon bio”) as the label isn’t a guarantee on its own.
Prices are worked out from the agreed cost of production by a standard tariff which covers handling and delivery: for example, the grower gets E0.42 for a lettuce, 40% on top of his E0.30 costs (to encourage investment in quality), and it’s then sold at E1.02 including delivery. Compare that with the supermarkets which buy lettuces at E0.10 to E0.20 each and sell them at E1.20 in the store, or as much as E1.76 plus delivery from online cybermarchés! Paysans.fr prices for producer and customer have remained stable, and what’s more, any new product goes first to a group of customers for vetting, and is only put on the list if it gets at least 70% approval rating. Success shows in the annual turnover – about a million euros at present and growing by 15% to 20% a year.
And the future? Patricia says that other regions could well want to follow her example, perhaps in some sort of alliance, while the restaurant trade has shown interest in what’s on offer – but she counsels caution, to make sure the founding principles behind her network are respected.
www.paysans.fr, 08 25 88 78 05
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Wednesday, 16 April 2008 |
The firm of Marty at Cuzorn (47) has manufactured parquet flooring for the past 70 years, and isn’t a place associated with the French passion for strikes. But on March 10, all but 20 of their 500-strong workforce were out in the road or staying at home. Reason? – the Swiss-based group NFI
which now owns Marty had responded to a gloomy financial report by ordering a three-day week and no renewal of short-term contracts.
Employees and unions were furious, blaming the group for lack of investment and top-heavy management. Local boss Frédéric Marty sympathises, but admits that the market for this luxury product is difficult and belt-tightening decisions can’t be avoided. Jobs are short in this area, and local politicians will have to work hard to solve the dispute.
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Wednesday, 16 April 2008 |
March 13 was a big day for Cerader 24, a local association for the defence of asbestos victims. It marked the delivery of a reserved judgment in the Périgueux Social Security Tribunal in favour of eight former employees of SNPE (Société nationale des poudres et des explosifs) and two of SNCF, all of them ill from many years’ exposure to the cancer-producing fibre (three have already died).
The judge awarded the maximum extra pension, together with damages from E32,000 to E150,000, in recognition of the employers’ admitted “inexcusable fault” at the Bergerac explosives factory.
Daniel Poumeyrol, vice-president of Cerader 24 and himself an asbestosis sufferer, warmly welcomed the judgement as a first in the battle, and said it would give heart to other asbestos victims both at the Bergerac works and at other explosives factories throughout France. Further hearings are to follow.
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Wednesday, 16 April 2008 |
Organised by students for students, Complot sur le Campus is a free festival started three years ago on the initiative of various associations at the University of Albi.
This eco-festival aims to introduce the public to environmentally-friendly alternatives: organic beer, wine and food are all featured on the menu.
The festival has no state funding: “The mairie doesn’t sponsor us because they think we’re just a group of young people wanting to get drunk,” says Adam, an English 20-year-old psychology student hailing from Oxford and an organiser of the event. “Neither do big companies who are against our ideology, but we get sponsored by other organisations. We want to show people an alternative to the way they live already. We are not at all interested in money-making machines, and we try to favour ‘les petits producteurs’... Having large companies sponsor us would be contradictory. This festival is also a good way for the British living here to break the British circle and see a French part of France that isn’t just farmers and bakers.”
There are activities all through the three days and concerts in the evenings. On Wednesday April 9, there is the ‘grand jeu’ for children of all ages, and a host of other workshops. On Thursday, a debate on sustainable development in school and on Friday an eco-citizens’ village with a farmers’ market and a hydrophile concert (music with water).
Music comes from a great variety of groups including Naive, Freycolo, Dembolo (percussion), The Banyans, Dirty Fonzy, Rageous Gratoons and À bout d’souffle.
This year the theme is ‘Crée ton monde’ create your own world. SM
April 9, 10 and 11 at the FAC Champollion.
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www.myspace.com/complotsurlecampus
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Wednesday, 16 April 2008 |
The Petit train has started another season ferrying passengers up the steep tracks to the top of the Rhune mountain. The station at Col de Saint-Ignace, between the villages of Sare and Ascain, opened its doors to passengers on March 18. Since 1924, when the line saw its inaugural trip, more than 350,000 visitors have taken the ride to the top of the Rhune, one of the most visited sites in the region.
The Rhune sits at an altitude of 905m at the western end of the Pyrénées, and straddles the French and Spanish borders. Covered in dolmens, stone circles and other neolithic monuments, it is considered a sacred place in Basque mythology. The summit was reputed to be a meeting place for witches and, as late as the 18th century, local villages paid for a monk to live there to keep witches away. During the Spanish Civil war and WWII, refugees were smuggled across the border by way of the Rhune.
The railway is popular with train enthusiasts too and the little train is one of only three cog-driven trains in France. The trip provides spectacular panoramic views of the coastline from San Sebastian up as far as the Landes. For those who wish to walk down, there is a well-signed hiking trail, which takes a couple of hours. There are also various special events organised throughout the year. CH
Open daily March 18 – Nov 5. Trains depart from Saint-Ignace regularly from 10am-3pm. Adults E12 single, E14 return. Children (4-10) E7 single, E8 return. Children under 4 go free. www.rhune.com, Maison Goran, 64520 Bardos, 06 28 37 17 76
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