The high temperatures reveal the difficulties of the French strawberry sector

Strong heat affected France for ten days in mid-May. Some farmers have been hit hard: Strawberries have ripened too quickly, resulting in record losses. Farmer in Tarn-et-Garonne, Laurent Dirat lost more than 40% of his total production.

One of the causes of these losses: the lack of manpower. "The difficulty today for market gardeners growing strawberries in the ground is to find people motivated enough to be on all fours and pick strawberries under the dodger." explains Émeline Vanespen, General Manager of the AOPN Fraise de France. Normally, the pickers pass once a week in each row. To keep up with the pace of this maturation, they should go there every two days, estimates Laurent Dirat. “I work today with 52 people. I would have needed three times as much during those ten days.”

The attitude of the big brands during these crises is not unanimous among the players in the sector. Laurent Dirat denounces the refusal of certain brands to offer slightly overripe strawberries, when they could be sold to make jam. The farmer qualifies as hypocrisy the attitude of the supermarkets which, rather than highlighting French strawberries, prefers to promote Spanish strawberries "which are not produced under the same conditions". Émeline Vanespen, for her part, understands that the big brands cannot accept products of poor quality. “Offering overripe strawberries would be very bad for the image of the sector with the consumer. We can't blame the supermarkets."

Since May 22, however, operators have observed a “return to normal”. “We lost 10 degrees in all the basins. Our French strawberry is regaining its quality,” says Émeline Vanespen. But Laurent Dirat is aware that this crisis will not be the last. If the situation does not improve, the farmer will choose to reduce his strawberry plots. "I'm thinking more and more of other products that can withstand high heat and need less water, such as pulses from the Maghreb."

The farmer explains that it is necessary, faced with these recurrent high temperatures, that the State think about localized solutions, adapted to “each territory”. “I would like there to be cooperation between the State services and the stores so that we enter into a logic of mutual aid and that we get out of profitability at all costs. he concludes.