“French production was delayed this year because of the bad weather. But since that was also the case for Spain and Morocco, there was no clash between the three origins,” explains Jean-Marc Boyer, commercial director at Boyer. “At the moment, we are busy with the Spanish production, which is very good quality this year. And the most intensive period for our French melons is about to start, in the southeast first, followed by the southwest in mid-July.”
Regarding demand, the fickle weather so far has not favored consumption. But Jean-Marc remains optimistic that the situation will evolve. “The nice weather is back so I hope that the demand will increase strongly, which will boost the market.”
Jean-Marc Boyer, in front of PhiliBio melons
Some organic projects
While keeping in mind all the quality labels recently implemented in France, the company wished to strengthen its position with an organic production. “Each quality label has its constraints depending on the type of structure you are dealing with. This makes it difficult to get all our producers to engage in the same process. But when it comes to organic, we already produce 500 tons of organic melons, and we want to increase our volumes. We continued with the plums, and 2 to 3 years from now, we will be able to offer 200 to 300 tons of organic plums. As for grapes, we should be ready to offer an organic range to our clients as early as next year,” explains Jean-Marc.
A production line in operation
To guarantee the origin of the brand, the Philibon melons are laser marked before being labeled.
“With the Philibon label, we only expect the best on our plates”
Created by Claude Boyer some sixty years ago, the company markets more than 30,000 tons of products per year including 25,000 tons of melons, which remains their flagship product. With production coming from the West Indies, Morocco, Spain, France and Senegal, Boyer is able to offer Charentais melons to its clients for eleven months out of twelve.
The exotic range of the famous Philibon brand, mostly worked off-season, started in the 1990s on Réunion Island. “After trying out with melons over there, we became interested in other high quality products like the Victoria pineapples, mangoes, lychees, in order to broaden the range a little while searching for quality exotic products primarily. Most importantly, these products must meet the Philibon quality requirements because, with the varietal evolution we must not lose sight of, we make quality our daily priority.”
The Boyer company in Moissac
For more information:
Jean-Marc Boyer
Boyer SAS
100 rue François Charmeux Z.I. Borde-Rouge
82200 MOISSAC
Phone: +33 (0) 5 63 04 15 64
Mobile: +33 (0) 6 07 37 26 82
Fax: +33 (0) 5 63 04 26 25
[email protected]
www.philibon.com
