McDonald’s signed up with the five French agricultural cooperatives in the fruit and vegetable sector of Florette. At its Torreilles and Saint Pol de Léon locations (Finistère), Florette develops and packages the ingredients that are then delivered to the 1,464 fast-food restaurants.
The company Florette will receive 13,200 tons of apples, tomatoes and lettuce. The Occitania region will supply McDonald’s with 1,200 tons/year to develop the small packets included in the menus.
For Rémi Rocca, director of purchasing at McDonald’s France, “this contract renewal, with volumes that are up 15%, reflects the confidence we have in the French agricultural cooperative system. In our view, these three-year contracts present many advantages. While ensuring medium-term income, they give visibility to the cooperatives and contribute to their development. Besides, it enables us to secure our supplies locally and in the long term.”
This is good news for farmers of the sector, while the French agriculture is shrinking each year, with a steady decline in the number of farmers (1.5 to 2% per year according to figures from the Mutualité Sociale Agricole). For Pierre Meliet, general manager of Florette Food Service, “the company has been a partner of McDonald’s for a long time, and it has an excellent knowledge of the issues from upstream agricultural activities. This has allowed us to be a source of proposals for McDonald’s France and to provide its restaurants with fresh quality fruits and vegetables, from a sustainable agriculture whose ecological footprint continues to improve.”
