Angry French farmers can count on horticulturists, not politicians, for support

Recent farmer protests engulfing large parts of Western Europe are proof of the frequently bitter relationship between farmers and supermarkets, farmers and national governments, between farmers and environmentalists, and between farmers and Brussels. French horticulturists, being a vital part of the country’s agriculture, mostly have the same concerns as their larger-scale brothers in EU agriculture, while there are also several country-specific issues, writes Brand Wagenaar for FloraCulture International.

France has 2,300 flower and plant growers, including a sizeable number of small-sized ‘hortipreneurs’ who ‘grow their own’ and sell locally. The latter are often supported by social media and a digital commerce platform offering a unique, personalised experience with a focus on ‘returning to nature’.

The country has 13,200 florists, who mostly source their products through Dutch web shops. An estimated 600 florists sell their products under a brand, and these franchisees mainly buy cut flowers directly through Dutch wholesalers, making up for 25 per cent of domestic flower sales.

At the same time, the country hosts around 250 larger-scale and modern production companies that sell their ornamentals through traditional wholesalers. What is quintessentially French is the Centrales d’Achat, Central Buying Offices, a specialised channel bridging production and retail.

Traditional wholesaler

There are an estimated 200 floral wholesalers in France. In the cut flower category, only 20 per cent of the blooms are French-grown, and more than 80 per cent are imported from abroad, with the Netherlands being a key supplier in the French market.

Forty per cent of houseplants are of French origin, with the majority of products predominantly imported from the Netherlands.

Import dependency is less significant in bedding, garden plants, and nursery stock products, with France growing 61 per cent of its outdoor ornamentals.

The wholesalers buy their in and outdoor ornamentals in bulk from growers and sell them to florists, garden centres, ‘finished plant’ growers, landscapers and local authorities.

The wholesale business is undergoing an accelerated transformation, with the rise of webshops and a relentless search for shorter supply chains.

The (new digital) competition is fierce, costs are rising, and profit margins are falling. True to tradition, floral wholesalers provide basic services around the flowers and plants they sell, including unpacking, repacking, bundling/unbundling, storage, and transportation. The wholesale business remains an important cog in the supply chain, but there’s an overall consensus that it needs to move beyond meeting basic customers’ needs. Most of them are looking into ways to take those services to the next level, streamlining their processes, becoming service providers, and focusing on custom-made orders.

At the same time, the wholesale distribution of flowers and plants in France is a highly consolidated industry. Floral wholesalers are dwindling in numbers, and the same applies to flower whole markets, which are traditionally the home to many wholesale businesses. Few have survived, and Rungis in Paris is the most iconic one that continues to operate. Here, florists can buy their purchase ornamentals and sundries in cash-and-carry stores.

Retail distribution channels

France has 1,630 specialised garden centres and 1,400, which is called Libre Service Agricole (LISA) in French. The latter are farm shops in rural areas.

There are fewer and fewer independently run garden centres, and many garden centres or LISA belong to either Gamm Vert, Jardiland, Delbard, Botanic, Truffaut or a few smaller brands.

Gamm Vert, Jardiland, Delbard, and Jardineries du Terroir are grouped into a sole Central Buying Office trading under the name In Vivo/Teract—which alone represents half of the country’s specialised plant retail outlets.

These increasingly powerful retail buyers don’t bode well for growers, who find themselves increasingly squeezed out.

More or less, the same situation is happening in the mass marketing of flowers and plants by non-specialist retailers. The latter mostly sell seasonal flowers and plants, with sales peaking in the run-up to the major plant and flower-giving days such as Valentine’s Day, Easter, Mother’s Day, Toussaint (All Saints’ and All Souls Day), and Christmas.

Also, in this segment of the market, a handful of powerful supermarkets control the mass marketing of flowers and plants. At the same time, at the production level, only a few small—to medium-sized growers are organised in grower groups or cooperatives.

Delicate balancing act

Mass-market ornamental growers feel increasingly caught between conflicting demands for cheaper flowers and plants, compulsory certification, and climate-friendly but more costly cropping.

These growers have little choice but to sell their flowers to the big three in supermarket and DIY sales, respectively: Auchan, Carrefour, and Leclerc, and Leroy-Merlin, Castorama, and Mr Bricolage. More often than not, growers have little choice but to accept whatever is offered.

Overall, French ornamentals growers find themselves increasingly in an inequal position. They act as the buffer from the retailer against the vagaries of the flower and plant market but receive the least return.

In essence, growing flowers and plants in France requires a delicate balance between government regulations and distributors’ criteria, changing and more eco-conscious consumers, and the viability of business discussion. The problem in (not only) France is that there is no highly organised and dynamic trading site for flowers and plants, as Royal FloraHolland in the Netherlands that brings global supply and demand under one roof.

Over-powerful purchasing groups and poorly organised growers in groups or cooperatives cause an imbalance, exacerbating tensions between the different stakeholders.

In 2018, the French government introduced the EGalim law (Loi Egalim) to balance commercial relations between the farming and food sectors and for the long-term, healthy and accessible food, aka law for the balance of commercial relations in the agricultural and food sector and healthy, sustainable and accessible food for all.

Its goal was to regulate excesses, but critics say it does not work and it is frequently touted as imperfect and poorly respected in the absence of sanctions in the context of EGalim contracts.

Farmers and growers alike complain that the numbers do not work, especially given the costs of labour, energy, and fertilisers. They sustain that these costs cannot be passed on to plant producers because the major retail buyers compete on price and pass on the lower margins to growers. This situation is unsustainable over time.

What needs to be done?

In today’s tension-filled situation, farmers’ and retailers’ communication does not inspire trust; each party has its own logic and is not interested in hearing their counterparts’ arguments. There are three parallel lines of action to embark on.

Educating consumers and making them understand that if they want to help fight climate change and biodiversity loss and advocate for more urban green spaces, they must give themselves the means to do so and be prepared to pay the price.

Strengthen and enforce the law to protect the incomes of farmers and horticultural producers. It is safe to say that the fire of agricultural protest has not been extinguished yet and is likely to flare up unless agricultural livelihoods improve. Politicians have been warned repeatedly.

Convince wholesalers and central buying offices that they need producers as much as producers need them.

In fact, improvement remains unlikely as long as each industry stakeholder continues to grab as much of the margin as possible instead of agreeing to discuss how to preserve and share it.

This article was first published in the May 2024 issue of FloraCulture International.