Music and tasting this Friday, December 20, 2024 at dawn, at the fruit and vegetable wholesaler Blampin, at the MIN Alimentaire in Saint-Augustin.
The French brand Philibon promotes its exotic gems with music. We taste pineapple, passion fruit, mango. The palaces of professionals, 80% of which are semi-wholesalers serving restaurants, villas, boats, are being conditioned.
Alain Vidal, manager of the premises, looks around at the comings and goings of the devils filled with boxes and crates. Inform. Give a helping hand. He knows the song, Alain: “My father was a banana ripener under what is now Safari, Cours Saleya, when the market was still there.” Before his installation in the Var plain in 1965.
400 references
It's far. Different. The atmosphere is more sluggish. Premises are closed. The producers’ tile is less… productive. Rising costs, falling purchasing power and sprawling large-scale distribution explain this decline in wholesale activity.
“Avant, remembers Alain, a wholesaler made only 5 or 6 references. Today we have to do everything. For us, that represents 400 references.” Peppers, zucchini, mushrooms, artichokes, citrus fruits, pears, apples, strawberries, raspberries… “This morning, activity is good. The goal is for the customer to make 100% of the market here, from aromatic herbs to exotic fruits.”
Crescendo of the last days
An exoticism, some of which arrives from Rungis, which is called kiwano with the slight resemblance to passion fruit, guava, tamarillo, snake fruit… New flavors from Costa Rica, Indonesia, Africa, etc. . At Blampin, as with other colleagues, a beautiful variety displays its curves.
Does she serve up a substantial belly dance? Here again, times are changing. There are a few glitches: “In the past, pre-orders were made two weeks before D-Day. This is no longer the case, even if we ramp up the last four or five days before Christmas. After December 25, New Year's Day remains very well, then, the first half of January continues to give satisfaction thanks to the Italian clientele.”
Sous influence
What makes a vegetable, a fruit, so popular? “Now we rely a lot on TV cooking shows and what works at the moment is avocado and mango. Dried fruits also sell well.”
Precisely, not far from there, under the historic D'Oriano brand, David Reyter's team is coming out of its shell: “It’s gaining momentum”whispers the boss between two customers. Corsican clementines, huge Argentinian cherries, grapes with the taste of cotton candy… are nicely competed by cargoes of dried fruits and oilseeds.
Luigi's universe. The young man, also an influencer, does not just sell directly: “On my Instagram account @orazfruits, I put the products we have to make people want to rediscover the real taste.”
The real taste of walnuts, almonds, hazelnuts, cashews, dates stuffed on site in the workshop and by hand, glazed fruits, calissons. “The most intense is now. For the holidays, dried fruit is a big job. On New Year's Eve, people only take one supplement.”
At La Poissonnerie, things are buzzing!
The Fish Market. “An establishment that has existed for over 50 years“, notes Emmanuel Baghdassarian, the boss of this huge refrigerated room.
Final resting place of fish, crustaceans, shellfish, scraped, cut, cleaned, packaged before ending up on restaurant tables or the stalls of fishmongers in the region: “Our catchment area extends from Menton to Cannes.“
So, the entire Maralpine coast, along which “shellfish, oysters, shrimp and smoked salmon remain the star products of Christmas and New Year's Day”.
Because iodine remains one of the favorite tastes for celebrating: “The holidays remain the holidays, even if they take place during the last ten days of December“.
At La Poissonnerie, no drowning for the organization: “We do not hire reinforcement staff. We start a little earlier and everyone pitches in.“
The big rush? “The weekend before Christmas and until New Year's Eve. Then we have three days of peace and quiet for New Year's Eve. We no longer have pre-orders in November. The customers will all arrive on the 23rd!“
Local production on the decline?
Only Rio, the shepherd dog, jumps happily after his toy. He doesn't understand why his master, Jean-François Sassi, doesn't wear a frank smile.
This producer, who sells to grocers and resellers in the markets, is from the Var. Based in Fréjus. Bad lemonade: “Recently, we were flooded and were only able to save a few cabbages, top carrots and sweet potatoes…“
Jean-François is not a novice”We have been here for 40 years. Before me, it was my father, I took over and my son is there too.“
But even with experience, how can we combat climate change? Which swell the flood of current worries: “Many premises closures due to large-scale distribution. This is why there is not a lot of flow and life on the tile currently. In addition, producers can only come and sell at the MIN on Tuesday and Friday.”
