French vegetable exporter Le Dauphin invests in processing location

Vegetable exporter Le Dauphin from the French Brittany has invested heavily in its processing location this year. The number of loading docks has been extended from four to ten and new packaging lines have been purchased. "We outgrew our old selves. Fifteen years ago we still exported a lot of full loads of cauliflower but now the mixed loads/pallets have the upper hand. You need an efficient building for this," declares Jeroen Bosschaart during our visit to Brittany last week. Jeroen is the co-owner of the firm which exports the vegetables the region has become famous for, such as cauliflower, artichokes, mini vegetables and shallots.

Jeroen with cauliflower

"We try to define ourselves with service and quality. A lot of people say they do this, but if you really try to grant in the wishes of the customer, they will come back to you," says Jeroen. "By Brittany standards we have a lot of employees, but we believe this is needed to guarantee a good constant quality. We make a selection from all Prince de Bretagne depots and also a selection from growers. You can only do that if you have enough staff. Since last year we have specifically hired someone to extend the organic package. We offer cauliflower however the customer wants it, whether that's shelled, sealed or in florets. In our own modern packing station we can package customer specifically according to the wishes of all European supermarkets."

More and more mixed loads 

Jeroen says the ancient Prince de Bretagne auction system is good, but he is an advocate for a modernisation of the sales system. "We believe in a strong auction organisation, but people have to listen to the demands of the exporters and trading houses more, or we're going to lose customers. We try to stay ahead in the area of quality, but with the current system that quality could be pushed out of the way. I believe one of the benefits of the auction is that the vegetables are actually thrown out when the switch is made. If those products remain in the trade, they will bother you for weeks."

The cauliflower season has been on for a while. "It has been warm from September/October on. This meant that the cauliflower was on the market three weeks earlier and this resulted in difficult sales. Germany started importing but Poland is still in the way for the Russian market, Holland still has its own cauliflower and Belgium is finally beginning to empty. Demand and supply haven't been in balance and this means that a lot of cauliflower was wasted over the last few weeks. The extremely warm weather has not been ideal for the quality either. We are now three weeks ahead, but that means a period will follow in which we don't have cauliflower, and this period is not far away," expects Jeroen. But he doesn't plan to stock up. "That's short term thinking. Our customers expect fresh produce."

A lot of demand for coloured carrots

Le Dauphin has extended its package in recent years with the so called forgotten vegetables. "French cuisine has a worldwide reputation and this means that our export customers want some products from France in particular, such as purple carrots. It is an interesting market, but it remains a small market, which is willing to pay. But if there's even slightly too much product, the market immediately collapses. The sales of mini vegetables is also increasing. The retail picks up these vegetables in the week before Christmas, but during the rest of the year we mainly sell the mini vegetables to catering wholesalers and the food service."

Mini vegetables

"The artichoke production in Brittany is decreasing year by year. It is a very labour intensive cultivation and if you need to employ people for it, it's almost impossible. A product like savoy cabbage on the other hand, is growing every year," says Jeroen. "The advantage in this area is that you can harvest at pretty much any time. The climatological advantages of Brittany are often underestimated. It has an excellent climate for growing vegetables. People here work hard at the development of better varieties. A new variety which is better in leaf, colour or mildew resistance is added every year."

The biggest threat to the cultivation in Brittany is not labour costs or logistics, says the export, it is the development on production areas in other countries of origin. "Spain appears to have a lot of cauliflower and this is not to our advantage. Without climatological problems it could become a difficult season. But - this is the best part of our trade - you never know how a season will go. But in my experience you are better to start a season lagging behind than running ahead. You can't sell what you have had to throw out."


For more information:
Jeroen Bosschaart
Le Dauphin
ZI des Carmes - BP 62
29250 Sant Pol de Leon
Tel: 0033-298692622
[email protected]
www.ledauphin.fr