“The situation has not changed for a year”: what to remember from Villeneuve-sur-Lot plum day

The traditional annual meeting of plum producers and processors has just taken place within the Villeneuve-sur-Lot exhibition center to take stock of the last campaign and look forward to the future.

But before the first assessments expressed by Christophe de Hautefeuille, president of the Interprofessional Prune Bureau (BIP) and Thierry Albertini, president of the Prune Economic Committee, a detour through the aisles, among the producers, is essential. “If there are fewer people this year, then everything must be going well,” one of them notes ironically. “Anyway, I have a few years left before my retirement. The administrative constraints are more and more heavy and we really spend too much time on it. It's becoming unbearable. This year has been very average, even if the caliber is bigger . It really takes everything.” And his colleague adds. “The real problem, as in many professions, is the lack of workers. As early as June, I was thinking about it at night; will my drivers be there when I need them. You know, in 3 weeks, we make 80% of the year's figure. We must also think about the pruning period.

“A little disappointed by the fallout from the Tour de France, but we had to be present”

“If last year the atmosphere was gloomy, it has not really improved this year” begins Christophe de Hautefeuille, the president of the BIP. “A year later, little has changed for farmers in general and for our sector in particular.” Then to recall the promises made to the agricultural world a year ago, during the demonstrations, but to deplore “the political context with a real instability of governments which means that many files are blocked. And we do not see any still no outcome.” The climatic hazards also cited, “with a lot of rain and episodes of hail which affected the IGP zone. “The file on the recognition of agricultural calamity is being processed for all of the 6 departments concerned by the PGI”. To also be very vigilant about possible bans on phytosanitary products. “If this is confirmed, we will be as impacted as the hazelnut industry. We defend the idea that there should be no ban without an alternative solution.”

Thierry Albertini looks at the prune economic sector. “Another atypical season with its excess water which has meant that the quantity is less, and above all that a good part of the production is unfit for consumption. The only small satisfaction is that the sizes are larger than in previous years. But apart from that. Before, we marked the bad years on the calendars. Now, it's the good years that we'll have to remember.

Still on the economic aspect, the event of the year was the presence of the prune during the Tour de France on July 11 and 12. “We perhaps had too high expectations in terms of economic benefits. But we are here, especially in Villeneuve, in the cradle of prunes. We had to be present during this event.”

“Investments for a quality IGP”

Maison Roucadil, represented by Sébastien Larroque, is obviously present for this day, like the other large processors in the area. But Roucadil has one more news at the start of 2025. Investment aid from European funds to the tune of €875,740 has just been announced by the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region. “This aid will be delivered to us over a period of 4 years” specifies Sébastien Larroque. “This corresponds to a share of 20 to 25% of the investments which will be made over this period”.

It is an investment in the equipment that Roucadil launched. “The objective is to improve the pitting, grading and bagging capacities of prunes, increase production capacities, improve the quality of products, develop new ones, as well as improve working conditions. The harvests are not at the top for several years, and markets have been lost If we want to regain them and gain new ones, we must set ourselves a high quality PGI. This is the meaning of these investments. We must increase the quality. of our products within the framework of GIE Pruna. It is in this sense that we are investing a lot in the modernization of our calibration equipment and optical sorters.