Farmers sell fruit direct in cost row

FARMERS from the Lot-et-Garonne are selling produce direct to customers in Paris and in 25 suburban towns today to highlight soaring shop and supermarket bills and the poor prices they receive.

Raymond Girardi, of farmers union Modef, said they wanted to show the excessive margins supermarkets added and would sell tomatoes at “a fair price” of €1.70 a kilo instead of the €3 price ticket in a supermarket; elsewhere they would have nectarines at €2.20 per kilo instead of the supermarket price of €4.

Altogether the farmers are selling around 50 tonnes of fruit and veg, with 17 tonnes for the capital and the rest for towns in the suburbs.

Mr Girardi said that farmers knew that a kilo of tomatoes cost 75 centimes to produce but if supermarkets were offered foreign tomatoes at 50 centimes they would force the French farmer to accept less or lose a buyer.

Now Modef wants farmers to group themselves better to organise more direct sales and bypass supermarkets.

Fruit and veg prices have soared this year after the poor spring, with fruit up an average 14% and vegetables up 17%.

For the list of sale points, see here: Modef sales sites

Photo: Mathilde_rf-Twitter