“It's really windy in Provence, and that wind affected the leaves on many spinach plants,” explained Aurelie Guillen of Medifel. “Growers also had difficulty growing spinach because the weather was too rainy.” Harvesting began in November, and the first weeks of the season began well enough. But supplies started falling around mid-December, which is when Aurelie said the weather turned especially cold and rainy. While there are steady supplies of spinach, there's not enough to meet the exacting standards of buyers.
“We export to the United Kingdom and to Northern Europe, and the consumers in each of those places have different preferences,” said Aurelie. “They don't want any kind of spinach, they want a specific type with specific sizes of leaves. Spinach is a profitable product, but it's a difficult one to handle because you have to understand the product, you have to understand what your clients want and you have to deliver the product to your clients quickly.” Supplies of greenhouse spinach have also been available, and though those supplies are more expensive, their uniform quality has made them the most popular option for much of the season.
Aurelie also noted a pinch in supplies of bunched carrots. French bunched carrots in the Provence area aren't available until mid-March, so Medifel will make due with imports from Spain until then. Once local supplies are plentiful, Aurelie noted that they will push domestic carrots almost exclusively, as she believes it's important to support the local growers. But until then, she run into some of the same problems with carrots that local growers have had with spinach.
“It's been difficult trying to find the quality carrots we want from our Spanish suppliers,” said Aurelie. “They have to be fresh and they have to be of a certain weight, so we're having trouble finding enough the correct requirement from Spain.” Though it's possible to find product from other countries, Aurelie explained that the fragile nature and short shelf life of the products Medifel handles working only with countries nearby.
Medifel has also been carrying sweet corn for over 30 years, and although it's typically seen as a warm-weather product for consumers in Southern Europe, she has seen a growth in year-round consumption of the product.
“If you look at Nordic countries, they eat corn every day of the year,” said Aurelie. “They don't eat it as much farther south, but, in the last few years, consumption has grown all over, not just seasonally.” Medifel is currently importing sweet corn from Senegal, Morocco and Spain.
For more information:
Aurelie Guillen
Medifel
Tel: +33 490 712 209
medifel@wanadoo.fr
www.medifel.com