The campaign of traditional French shallots has started this year with a good demand on the market. “The harvest was limited in 2020 and this year, it is delayed, so we decided to offer to our clients hand-trimmed shallots in order to bridge the gap between refrigerated and semi-dry shallots,” explains Pierre Batardière of the Daniel Cadiou company.
This year’s difficult weather conditions in the spring caused delays in crop development, and the rainy weather of the past few weeks did not make it possible to catch up with the delay. “Under normal circumstances, we pull the shallots and let them dry in the field. But given the lack of sun and heat lately, the harvest was delayed. Since the merchandise was needed, we proposed trimmed shallots, which are chopped by hand in the field and then dried on our racks. These shallots have been available for about two weeks. And of course, besides being a high-end product due to the manual work required by its harvest, this shallot arrived on a deficit market and was sold at a relatively high price.”
Today and in the coming days, the conditions are good for drying in the field. “We have received the first volumes of semi-dry shallots last Friday, and these volumes will increase gradually until the beginning of August.
It is still too early to predict this year’s tonnage, but we can already say that the volumes will be much higher than they were last year.”
For more information: 
Pierre Batardière
Sarl Daniel Cadiou
La Ferme du Bant
29440 Plouzévédé – France
Phone: +33 2 98 69 99 17
Mobile: +33 6 07 22 05 54
p.batardiere@cadiou.org