The traditional lily of the valley will be offered to the president, Friday at the Elysée Palace, by representatives of the horticultural sector and the president of the Rungis market Stéphane Layani. It is not a reception but an appointment with less than ten people, adapted to health conditions, said the Elysee. It is the first time since the start of confinement due to the coronavirus that a ceremony has been organized at the Elysée, ten days before the start of the deconfinement.
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Last year, this ceremony was the occasion of a large reception in the hall of the Palace, with 400 representatives of the food industry around a giant buffet offered by the producers of Rungis. It also took place in a complicated context, the day of a demonstration of 40,000 people in Paris, at the call of trade union organizations, interspersed with clashes with the police on the sidelines of the rally.
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70% of the strands of thrush potentially lost
This year, horticulturalists, who find themselves with hectares of flowers on their arms, have asked the government, in vain, for the opening of florists on May 1. Selling on the street, tolerated each year, is also prohibited. As a consolation, they obtained the power to sell the strands in open stores. Bakeries and supermarkets should therefore be able to offer thrush to the French on Friday. Florists can also sell them remotely.
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But the federation of market gardeners from Nantes, which brings together producers based on the outskirts of Nantes, where more than 80% of the lily of the valley sold in France grows, already estimates that more than 70% of the 60 million sprigs of lily of the valley usually sold, which had been planted before containment, will be lost this year. Thrush represents between 20 and 30 million euros in turnover per year, according to the federation.