At a time when the Zero-Pesticide Residue (ZPR) concept seduces more and more, Alain Jézéquel is proud to announce that SARL Jézéquel Primeurs is the first, within the Nouveaux Champs collective, to propose cabbage with the ZPR label on the market. “For the moment, we are the only ones to propose Zero Pesticide Residue cauliflower. We started implementing the approach in June last year and we began selling our products in January.” And according to Alain, the consumer seems receptive to the concept. These are some encouraging beginnings.
ZPR: Demanding specifications
“It took us quite some time to validate the protocol, because the specifications are demanding. For the green cabbage for example, we are still looking for the appropriate protocol. The approach requires constant analyses, so we don’t have the right to make mistakes. If the analyses are not good, we cannot start marketing. But we have faith, because the analyses have been showing that we truly have no residue; it’s a very healthy product. Each plot is analyzed before the harvest, and throughout the whole process.”
Committing to this third way also means anticipating change. “We know very well that most active materials will eventually disappear. So we changed our way of producing.”
Cauliflower: a good season until February
According to Alain: “the season until February was quite good, but after that, the situation was more complicated and we are still recovering from it. The month of February we had was more like a month of April or May. The cauliflower did not really understand. The average temperature in February is usually between 32 and 55°F. And this year, temperatures climbed to 68-72°F for a couple of weeks. So automatically, there was humidity, heat and everything needed for the cauliflower to come out. A lot of the volumes were sold at ridiculously low prices. On the other hand, the demand was sustained this year, and we expect the season to end around the 10th of May.”
For more information:
Alain Jézéquel
Jézéquel Primeurs
Rozen Gavet
29 252 Plouezoc’h
Phone: +33 2 98 67 25 88
Mobile: +33 6 81 80 28 38
Jezequel.sarl@orange.fr