La Ferme d'Erquinvillers from Picardy foresees the French retail of yellow, red and white onions, silver skin onions, banana shallots and garlic all year round. The company carries out the cultivation, packaging and logistical activities themselves. The cultivation takes place on an area of 500 hectares in a radius of 50 kilometres around the production company, 80 kilometres north of Paris. "Small packaging is our speciality," says Grégoire Lévesque.
The onions are the largest part of the assortment of La Ferme d'Erquinvillers. These mostly go into packaging of 500 grams, 1 or 2 kilos to the French supermarkets throughout the country. The company has a modern box storage and invested strongly in the automation of the packaging line in the last year. Around half of the onions leave under the La Ferme d'Erquinvillers, the other half under supermarket private labels. "There is demand from the French retail for increasingly smaller packaging - for instance three or four onions in a net - and we can play into this well," says Grégoire.
According to Grégoire the onion season is going well. "We have access to an excellent quality of onions this year due to our terroir. From September to January the prices were at an average level. In mid January there was a price increase and I expect to be able to hold onto this level until the end of the season. We are having a normal year with the shallots, but with good quality."
He sees the future positively. "Our advantage is that the French retail will always choose a local producer if the quality of imported onions is the same. If we can continue to supply and maintain a good quality and foresee our customers of onions this flexibly, our future looks good,"concludes Grégoire.
