Paris (AFP)
While organic food is becoming increasingly popular on the French plates, a fierce commercial battle is developing between specialized historical stores, newcomers and supermarkets.
Everyone wants organic, the trend is there. And in 2018, large-scale retailers recorded almost half of household purchases, with 4.47 billion euros in sales of 9.1 billion organic products purchased in France.
Opposite, the 1,500 points of sale of the historic specialist retailers (Vie Claire, Naturalia, Biomonde, Whitewater, Biocoop, etc.) sold for 3.1 billion euros, ie one third of the total (the rest corresponds to online sales, direct sales or small independent traders).
But the growth of specialized stores between 2017 and 2018 (+ 7.7%) is much less than that of large retailers (+ 22.6%), which has strongly developed its lines and organic ranges in private label as brand national.
After a controversy in the spring on the heating of greenhouses, raising fears of a forced industrialization of organic agriculture in defiance of its "values" of respect for the seasons and the earth, followed by a second controversy in September, this once on the margins of fresh organic produce in supermarkets, the organic agency, responsible for supporting the development of organic food in France, puts foot in the dish.
At the "Assises de la bio" that she organizes Thursday in Paris, two of the biggest players in the sector are invited to explain: Michel-Edouard Leclerc, boss of the group of the same name, and Benoit Soury, director of the organic market at Carrefour and representative of the Federation of Commerce and Distribution.
Their arrival is accompanied by the publication of a survey conducted for the Organic Agency according to which for a majority of French (61%), the price of organic products does not primarily take into account the work of farmers, but more the cumulative effect of marketing costs or margins of distributors and manufacturers.
- "Drift" -
Before this meeting, the syndicate of specialized brands, Synadis bio, launched a satirical communication campaign on Wednesday denouncing the risks of "drift" of the sector, exposed to a lack of coherence "by the development of retail sales. .
"Certainly we do organic, but our specialty is to make money", claims, in a clip launched on social networks, a character embodying a department store manager crossing an apple orchard.
Some fear that the strong development of bio in supermarkets will mainly result in an increase in imports produced by standards sometimes less stringent than in France.
In fresh products, in 2018, 57% of organic fruit sold was imported and 23% of vegetables, but only 2% of the creamery and 5% of meat. In grocery stores, imports accounted for 62% of sales, according to Agency statistics.
In a manifesto made public Wednesday, specialty stores pledge to promote local producers and networks, and help them by providing contracts of a minimum of three years. They also promise "no fruit and vegetables from heated greenhouses" and "ethical relationships" with their partners.
In a general way, they are using their anteriority, recalling that the first organic stores appeared "70 years ago", in the 1950s, around a model of global society associating "the refusal of the agricultural productivism and the use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers "to defend both health and the environment.
But in the field of values, they are competing too, this time by new entrants. Thus, the young online trader The Forks notes from A to E the carbon impact of each of its products. In the vein of mobile applications Yuka or "what is this product?", The goal is both to democratize organic (The Forks promises prices 20% to 25% lower than those of specialized distribution) and to show the climate impact of food.
© 2019 AFP