“There is huge fraud on origins in the open-air markets”

At the start of May, the asparagus campaign is already well underway. "We started early and 70% of the season is done. We had fairly low volumes due to the cold and damp weather, which is not conducive to asparagus growth. "Our harvest will therefore be approximately 20% smaller than originally forecast. On the other hand, the cool spring weather was conducive to good quality asparagus. When temperatures are too high, we tend to have more category II asparagus."

Strong competition from imports
Daniel Seyvet only sells his produce on open-air markets. Prices are slightly better than in the second half of April, due to the large quantity of goods on the market. The asparagus from Greece, Spain, the Netherlands and, more recently, Egypt, have added to the competition with French asparagus. "Some wholesalers say there is less enthusiasm for asparagus, due partly to the inflationary context holding back the French from buying premium products. But French retailers are not playing the game and are taking huge margins. Some charge a price per 100g to attract customers. They buy asparagus at 2.9 €/100g [3.12 USD/100g], which is 29 €/kg [31.2USD/kg]. This is typical of the season, with retailers preferring to sell less at high prices, which does not encourage people to buy."

Photo credit © Dreamstime

In addition to the abusive margins allegedly practiced by certain retailers, Daniel wishes to denounce the growing number of cases of fraud at the root. "Every year, there are more and more cases. Consumers are shamelessly cheated, and there are no controls in place to combat this fraud. I have been selling on the market for years, and I have never been inspected. My crates are always clearly labeled and traceable. But I see very few labels around the market, which is not normal. There is a huge amount of cheating going on, which is detrimental to both consumers and producers, who find themselves harmed by this outrageous francization. As producers, we are calling for controls to restore order to this total anarchy, which is jeopardizing our business and weakening the entire sector. Even if a lot of asparagus end up in supermarkets, a large part of the production is sold on open-air markets."

Some room for "good products and honest people"
Daniel Seyvet feels powerless in the face of this injustice. "When we want to denounce these frauds, we are frowned upon. We try to be politically correct. Yet, we have to act and fight to put an end to this shameful cheating. But we producers need to unite to be stronger. Consumers are fond of good products and they are looking for quality, even in the current economic context. We can get by with direct sales. Good products are rare, and I regularly run out of things to sell around 10:30-11am, which is proof that there is room for good products and honest people. But trying to make a living from French production alongside fake French asparagus sold at outrageous prices is totally incoherent. We have to do something to stop it."