Whilst France produces a lot of asparagus, heavy competition has recently come in from Asia. The 20,000 tons produced in France today is half the amount that was produced in the 90’s. France’s main competition comes from Peru and China - the world’s largest producers of conserved asparagus (in jars).
Le Landes is France’s largest asparagus producing region, and a technique that requires a lot of manual labour. French producers want to keep up the French quality and know-how, as they have already lost to China in the industrial asparagus sector. Zhao Luyu, CEO of the Ju Xin Yuan Group says that “At the start of the 80’s, we began to plant asparagus entirely for export”. Thousands of jars are exported to France, and sold for half the price of the artisan French products. Today, China represents 70% of the global asparagus market.