On the 6th of April, Desmettre Bio will officially launch the new brand Mochébio on the Rungis market. The wholesaler’s initiative comes from a double observation. “First, we realized that more and more clients were turning away from organic products for financial reasons. But we refuse to see people reject healthy products because they cannot afford them. Additionally, we wanted to do our share of effort to reduce the amount of waste from fruit and vegetables. We therefore created the Mochébio brand to allow everyone to access organic products while fighting against food waste.”
Better value than in processing
The brand allows organic products, which are identical in taste to those that are not downgraded, to remain in the fresh produce circuit. “About 20% of our producers' fruit and vegetables are downgraded because they are visually less attractive or because their size does not fit the standards. Mass retailers have become increasingly demanding in terms of the visual appearance of fruit and vegetables, a very important criterion for consumers today. These fresh products, although just as good as the others, are usually sent to processing, where they are poorly valued. By offering to sell them at a lower cost in the fresh sector, producers can obtain a better value for these products.”
An initiative that is still uncommon at Rungis
With the new Mochébio brand, Desmettre Bio stands out for its ambition to accompany the producers in a global approach. “The objective is to sell most of their production. We do not focus only on downgraded fruit and vegetables. By marketing an additional percentage, we allow them to better value their production. Although this initiative is already visible in some stores, we are currently the only wholesalers at Rungis with such an offer.”
More awareness needed
This initiative is interesting but it cannot work without a certain awareness. “The challenge is to communicate with our clients by showing them that even if these products do not correspond to the usual visual criteria, they taste just like the other non-downgraded products. Before launching the brand, our tests revealed that our clients always went for the better-looking products. But once we explained our approach to them, they then put aside the visual aspect of the products in favor of the more attractive price. We can also help them communicate with their own clients.”
On the 6th of April, Desmettre Bio will have the opportunity to explain the approach behind the brand and to prove that these products taste just as good as the others. “A chef will be present to cook our Mochébio products. We will also process them into juice in order to compare them to the non-downgraded products. The objective is to show that there is no difference between the two juices and that it is now time to drop our prejudices.”
For more information:
Manon Gayraud
Desmettre Bio
20 Rue de Carpentras
Bât. D3, 94150 Rungis
as-marketing@desmettre.com
desmettrebio.com