In the streets of Saint-Genest-d’Ambière, near Châtellerault, Marie walks her wicker basket along the producer stands. The village organizes its traditional asparagus fair this Thursday, May 9, an appointment that she never misses. Marie is used to robbing the stalls to prepare asparagus tarts but this year, the price per kilo discourages her a little. “It’s nine euros per kilo, it’s a little more expensive than last yearshe laments. In any case, everything is increasing, you shouldn’t dream”.
Justine Claux
“The harvest is quite chaotic”
At another stand, Alain draws the same observation, he leaves with five kilos of asparagus for 45 euros. “It’s expensive but hey, you have to know how to have funhe says. We prefer to deprive ourselves of other things and continue to eat asparagus.”. The producers did not, in any case, no choice to increase their prices. “Everything has increased, production costs, labor, raw materialsexplains Jérôme, producer based in Ouzilly for twenty years. Obviously, this has an impact on the final price.”.
Harvests also took a hit because of the rainy weather. “We had a good start to the season but now that it’s wet, we have a lot less asparagus”regrets Michel, producer in Saint-Genest-d’Ambière. “The harvest is quite chaotic because for the past few days it has been rather cool and it has been raining a lot, the asparagus is growing less”, adds Alexis, producer of organic asparagus for around ten years. He hopes to make up for it by the end of the season in mid-June.
Justine Claux
