Nord is France's only national chicory brand. Caroline Basset, the company's Marketing Manager tells us that 80,000 tons are produced annually (by their 175 producers) which represents 45-50% of French production. However she says that sales are not going well at the moment and ''the problem this year is that we haven't had a winter''. Chicory is on offer all year round but production is at its strongest between October and March. ''It really is a winter salad and is the 4th most consumed vegetable in France, including potatoes'' continues Caroline Basset, ''now with the early arrival of Spring, other competitive vegetables have come on the market, who also have low prices. The situation has been difficult for almost a month now''.
During these difficult times they do turn to export which allows them to transfer volume to avoid dropping prices on the large retail market in France. ''We sometimes do food banks'' says Caroline Basset. They also take measures such as destroying the product before it reaches an advanced stage to avoid saturating the market.
Chicory fine
In March 2012, 11 organisations of chicory producers were fined €3.6 million due to a common agreement on minimum price that was carried out over 14 years. Over 90% of French chicory production was involved. The Autorité de la Concurrence decided that the effect on the price paid by the consumer was limited. However, the organisations had to pay fines, which Daniel Bouquillon, President of the Chicory Growers Union says means ''we lost credibility in front of our banks and suppliers''.
Caroline Basset confirms that the producers disputed this judgement and the decision of the court of Appeal took place this week and they have ''proven with figures'' that this did not affect consumer prices and that ''what we did was not a breach''. She says that ''the consumer never paid more for their chicory''.
As for prices, Perle du Nord says ''we fix our prices ourselves depending on demand and available volume,'' whilst also taking into account prices fixed at auction in Belgium and Brittany (though they themselves do not work within an auction system).
It is apparent that in the future ''there will be less and less chicory producers, so the organisation of production will develop'' but the size of production itself will not. At Perle du Nord they feel strongly that they have a production method that enables farmers to earn a good living and continue to produce chicory.
