Should we keep the Food Market of National Interest (MIN) and its floral counterpart? Why continue to commit public funds to private activities impacted by the economic context? Yesterday’s MINs prospered because of significant local production, both market gardening and horticultural, which is no longer relevant. So does the trade as it still exists in Saint-Augustin justify such an infrastructure?
The project to relocate the MIN to La Gaude will not see the light of day. There is talk of transferring the flower business to land in the Saint-Laurent-du-Var business park and plans to move the food part to the bottom of the Var plain. Wouldn’t it be better to switch to another formula, such as that of small thematic purchasing groups, and put an end to this protean commercial juggernaut? For the actors, direct and indirect, of the MIN, the answer is no. All want to keep their two markets, if possible close, even if they admit that the concept needs to be revisited.
Christine and Sophie, retailers at Place Fontaine-du-Temple in Nice Nord, do not budge: “There are several generations of people from Nice holding market access cards. We come here regularly for the freshness, to find the peasants who are waiting for us, to look at the goods. In 35 years, we have never been delivered!” Like them, other figures in the world of markets argue in favor of maintaining a wholesale market. But why?
1. That’s life in the city
“You have to keep the MIN. It’s life in the 5th city of France, it’s business, traders, transactions, a whole machine started. It’s a social place.” For Nicole Merlino, the existence of the MIN is not negotiable. The one who was elected by Christian Estrosi from 2014 to 2020 has her arguments: this Niçoise daughter of horticulturists, ex-horticulturist herself in Pessicart, ex-flower wholesaler in Lorraine, was president of the flower wholesalers from 1994 to 2010 and president of the MIN d’Azur from 2014 to 2020. “In 2014, she pleads, we were the 2nd wholesale market after Rungis [Val-de-Marne]. Our aura was exceptional and we could largely invest in La Gaude. Everything stopped. Why? There are lots of excuses…”
2. It’s local independence
The conservation of the MIN as a whole is also fiercely defended by Jean Casals, ex-wholesaler in fruits, early vegetables and exotic fruits, president of the Syndicate of food wholesalers until 2005 and representative, until 2021, of the Chamber of Commerce and industry within the management committee of the MIN. He knew the time of the MIN at the Cours Saleya before he migrated, in 1965, to his twin site of Saint-Augustin. “A MIN, insists Jean Casals, is freshness a short distance from the delivery point. It’s local independence.”
3. It is the guarantee of a great choice
However, Jean Casals admits large-scale trading fluctuations. In particular with regard to local production: “In food, this has never exceeded 20% of the production of the MIN. We had chard but no fruit, shipped from Haut-Var, Vaucluse, Italy, Spain… In the heyday of the hills planted, particularly with carnations, local floral production represented 30 to 35% of total production. Now we are almost at ground zero.” Nicole Merlino, too, is aware of this fall. Which she brushes aside with the back of her hand: “Whether or not to keep a MIN in Nice has nothing to do with local agriculture or horticulture. In Lyon, we do not produce flowers and yet there There’s a MIN of flowers! We have Italy nearby with producers of cacti, poinsettias, etc. The same goes for the Var with peonies. It doesn’t matter that there is no or no cultivation In Nice, we have good florists who will always need wholesalers even if the horticulturists in Nice have almost disappeared.”
Jean Casals confirms: “The MIN has a purpose in being a platform for products from Cavaillon, Drôme, Holland, etc.”
Circuits also change. “Producers of high quality fava beans, trumpet courgettes, etc., deliver directly. Even at the Liberation market, we get delivered. It’s a normal development. But at the MIN, we have vegetable and fruit specialists very rare, very distant. It is an added value.”
4. It is the possibility of new services
The MIN, an essential crossroads? Yes for Jean Casals: “Hotels in Cannes, Nice, Monaco, restaurants, retirement homes, cruise and luxury ships, canteens, shops, convenience stores, etc. need this distribution platform.”
And not just to buy. “We do not only sell but also refine: we ripen, we offer fresh pre-cut fruits and vegetables. That is the future, even if the tonnage of MIN has halved since its creation because of the big distribution.”
The future. Jean-Philippe Frère, the president of the Departmental Federation of Farmers’ Unions, an organization bringing together 700 members, mentions it: “With the MIN in La Gaude, we had planned a vegetable shop, a sort of processing workshop for making coulis, preserves. We wanted to reproduce the MIN by innovating it with this type of unit thanks to which everyone would be a winner. About sixty producers from 06 go to the Vaucluse to process their fruits or vegetables. For us, the redesigned MIN is a fundamental element, even if there are fewer farmers and horticulturists. You can sell large volumes there for traders, hoteliers, restaurateurs. It is essential.”
photo">Nicole Merlino directed the MIN d’Azur for a long time. Removing or dissociating them is an aberration for her.Nice morning.
