For a lot of French fresh produce traders, winter means the export of cauliflower. The cauliflowers of the French company Groupe Gosselin find their to about ten other European countries during the season. Manager Nicolas Gosselin says that quite a few shifts have taken place on the European market in recent years. “These aren’t to the benefit of French cauliflower. Traditional export destinations started producing more themselves, while consumption is also dropping in France.”
Nicolas: “In the past five to ten years, European export opportunities have decreased bit by bit. For example, Germany and Poland have a much higher domestic cauliflower production than in the past, so we’re not selling as much here. This is mostly the case in the autumn and winter months.”
Domestic consumption decreasing
The French cauliflower sector is also facing challenges in France. Ten years ago, French households still ate cauliflower regularly. Since then, consumption has dropped considerably, according to Nicolas. He says the most important reason for this is the time it takes to prepare the product. “Modern consumers want products that can be prepared quickly.” Another often-heard complaint from consumers is the unpleasant smell released during cooking.
Cauliflower app
Gaëlle Juton of Prince de Bretagne knows French consumers have to become enthused about cauliflower again like no one else. Much is still to be done regarding the younger generation, because cauliflower is perceived as classic and outdated. For this reason, the grower’s cooperative introduced the app Chou’Time this month. Players of the app become cauliflower growers and are challenged to make responsible decisions that lead to a good harvest. The app also features recipes. Gaëlle: “In the end, we hope to give cauliflower a creative, young and festive image with this app.”
Opportunities Southern Europe
France is the third-largest cauliflower producer of Europe, Spain and Italy are the only two countries producing more. Despite this, these two countries are still importing cauliflower from France. “There’s a lot of demand for this in certain periods,” Nicolas explains. “Spanish production is limited in autumn and spring, and we can sell a lot in Spain then. For the other European countries, winter and spring are ideal export periods.” Besides, the French and Southern European cauliflower can’t be compared. Nicolas and Gaëlle say there are a lot of differences.
Of the 2,319,667 tonnes of cauliflower grown in Europe, 269,098 tonnes come from France. Eighty-four per cent of the French cauliflower is grown in Brittany. Another five per cent comes from Normandy. According to Nicolas, these Northern French cauliflowers are very different from the Spanish and Italian cauliflowers. “French cauliflower is heavier. This is due to both the colder climate and the soil used to grow the crop.”
This is confirmed by Gaëlle. “Italy and Spain have the same Mediterranean climate. Cauliflowers have a growth cycle of 75 to 120 days. In Brittany we have a colder and darker winter. Because of this, our cauliflower grows much slower during a cycle of 90 to 280 days. As a result, our cauliflower is both more compact and larger than the Italian and Spanish versions. For these countries, it’s difficult to grow a size six, but for us, that’s the standard.”
Gaëlle adds that the Breton cauliflower is treated as little as possible. “Although more Southern countries can have a lot of problems with pests, we’re not really bothered by these. We can therefore limit the use of pesticides much more, to work more environmentally friendly. We don’t use irrigation either, and freshness is very important to us. Our products are brought to the customers as quickly as possible; we never store the cauliflowers for more than 48 hours.”
Becoming more sustainable
Prince de Bretagne is still looking for more sustainable production methods. “Nowadays, one of our biggest challenges is to keep quality of the leaves up under wet weather circumstances. The leaves protect the cauliflower. To optimise production, our growers developed a cauliflower that’s covered with leaves all the way to the top. This doesn’t just protect the crop during production, but also during transport. This is used instead of less environmentally friendly protection methods.”
