Zucchini, peppers, squash, asparagus… State services in the Bouches-du-Rhône are investigating the questionable practices of a fruit and vegetable wholesaler, we learned on Monday from the prefecture.

Several searches and police custody took place in June, under the authority of the Tarascon prosecutor's office, in this case which concerns several hundred tonnes of vegetables purchased in 2020 and 2021.

The labels of vegetables indicating "Spain" would have been removed from the packages and packaging and replaced by labels indicating an origin "France".

According to the first elements of the investigation, the company would have published invoices on which the French origin was registered.

"It is then impossible for its customers, and the end consumer, to realize that it was, in fact, Spanish vegetables", assures the prefecture in its press release.

Large distribution

The investigation is still ongoing, but the first findings indicate that the customers concerned are mainly retail chains.

This wholesaler could also have acted with the help of a fruit and vegetable conditioner, responsible for repackaging certain net vegetables and labeling them as originating in France.

This so-called “francization” fraud involves a company buying products abroad, often at low prices, and reselling them claiming that they come from French production.

When established, this practice is punishable by two years in prison and a fine of 300,000 euros.

The interest in fraud lies in the differences in price and seasonality of fruit and vegetables between producing countries.

The prefecture cites the example of the Spanish pepper which, last June, was traded on the wholesale market at around € 2 per kg while the French pepper, whose harvest has just started, was bought for nearly € 3. the kg.

Economy

Episode of frost: The prices of cherries and apricots from Provence soar, wholesalers turn to Spain

Justice

Brittany: His tomatoes "origin France" came from abroad, a heavily condemned wholesaler

  • Tarascon

  • Fraud

  • Fruits and vegetables

  • Consumption

  • Agriculture

  • Society