Coronavirus in Bordeaux: Gironde: Le Drive Fermier wants to ride the wave of the short circuit -

20 Minutes

  • During the first confinement, orders had exploded on the Drive Fermier site, which had to create an ephemeral withdrawal point on the Place des Quinconces in Bordeaux.

  • Since then, the soufflé has subsided a bit, but the network has gained around 40% of customers who have remained loyal.

  • The customers of the Drive claim the need to defend local agriculture.

Before the Covid-19 crisis, Ingrid, a resident of Lormont in the suburbs of Bordeaux, bought her fresh food at the market below her home.

“As it closed during the first confinement, we looked at how to continue to have fresh products, this is where our neighbors told us about the Farmer's Drive.

"

She liked this online ordering system for farm products so much that a year later she continued to shop with this network of producers.

Every Friday, she goes to Eysines, where she works, to collect her weekly order of products placed on the internet.

“Our market has re-established itself well, but in the end we are more satisfied with the drive: There is everything, fresh and local products, bread, meat, vegetables… And then it's good.

"

"There is an awareness of consumers"

Created by the Gironde Chamber of Agriculture in 2012, the Drive Fermier claims to have been the first agricultural drive in France.

In any case, it started at a time when we could count them on the fingers of one hand, while initiatives of the genre have multiplied in recent years.

Especially since the Covid-19 crisis.

“Clearly, there is a before and an after confinement, and there was also a pendant, analyzes the president of Drive Fermier Jean-Paul Aloird.

We rose to more than 900 orders per week during the first confinement, thanks in particular to the ephemeral withdrawal point that we were able to set up at Place des Quinconces in Bordeaux.

There was a windfall effect because people were having trouble getting supplies, but today, we are still at 260 weekly orders on average, 40% more compared to before the confinement, a period during which that was slowly declining… There was a paradigm shift, which allowed us to discover new customers who have remained loyal.

There is consumer awareness, now it's up to us to ride this wave.

"

Le Drive Fermier offers more than 600 references - Mickaël Bosredon / 20 Minutes

To do this, the structure has modernized its platform and launched a new website.

"We would also like to open an additional pick-up point in Bordeaux, ideally in Chartrons, knowing that the difficulty is to respect the cold chain," explains Jean-Paul Aloird.

Or we would need a cold truck that would allow us to be more mobile.

"

"Each producer brings his products on Friday morning"

The flexibility of the system is appreciated by customers.

You order online before midnight Wednesday evening and you freely compose your basket, without minimum order, nor obligation of commitment over a period of time.

You then choose your pick-up point among the three available in the metropolis (Eysines, Lormont, and Lacornée in the center of Bordeaux) then you pick up your order on Friday afternoon between 1:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m., or on the Rimons site near La Réole on Saturday morning.

In Bordeaux Métropole, “each producer brings their products on Friday morning before 8 am to our main Eysines platform,” explains Drive coordinator Hélène Minvielle.

Then, three farmers make shuttles with fresh trucks, on each of our sites to transport the goods.

"

When the demand for flour exploded

Producers take turns to deliver packages to customers.

Among them, Aurélie Feron, from the Ferme des Trois Lagunes in Saint-Laurent-Médoc, which makes wheat, and sells pasta and flour.

Flour, remember, that commodity that suddenly everyone was snatching up during the first confinement.

“At the time, I only offered bags of 1 kg, remembers Aurélie Feron, and there I started to have requests of 5, 10, 15 kg. It exploded, and I had to m '' equip with a second mill, to offer 5 kg packaging.

Since then, it's gone down again, but I still gained a lot of customers who stayed, and the demand remains strong.

"

Aurélie Feron, from the Ferme des Trois Lagunes in Saint-Laurent-Médoc - Mickaël Bosredon / 20 Minutes

On average, the weekly basket of Drive customers is around 50 euros.

“Our clients in central Bordeaux are rather young, otherwise we have a very family profile, four and fifty years old” summarizes Hélène Minvielle.

"Remember that it does not fall by itself on the plate"

Clément, from Mérignac, has been loyal since 2016. “I have always favored short circuits and local products, and here the products are of high quality,” he explains.

Even if it's a little more expensive, I don't buy fresh at all at the supermarket, and I even take my meat - duck, chicken… - at the drive.

On arrival, we find ourselves there, and I do not spend my Saturday in a supermarket.

But above all, it is important to defend our local farmers.

They have a know-how to pass on, we sometimes forget the work of the land, of agriculture, it is necessary to remember that it does not fall on its own on the plate.

"

Le Drive Fermier brings together some forty Girondins producers from different backgrounds.

More than 600 products are listed on the site, in conventional or organic.

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