Grown mainly in northern Brittany, the artichoke is no longer popular in France: difficult to cook, shunned by the younger generations, its sales are constantly falling and growers are concerned about the future of this emblematic vegetable of French gastronomy.
“2022 was a disastrous year and this year we still have the consequences of heat and drought,” explains Christian Bernard, 52, in the middle of an artichoke field in Tole (Finisterre).
«For a large and meaty artichoke, our price has dropped to the 20/25 euro cents per person that we paid for the product. We should be at 55/60…”, exclaims the horticulturist who has been cultivating this plant for 30 years. In a sign of discontent, on June 9, producers from Lannion (Cotes d’Armor) distributed tens of tons of unsold merchandise.
The reason for this drop in prices, the weather factor: the production of Breton and that of Roussillon, the second French region, coincided in an unusual way with the influx in June to the artichoke stalls, of which it is said that they love to have your feet in the water and your head in the sun.
But in addition to this situation, there is a structural tendency of this deterioration. Because according to Pierre Guillepart, head of artichoke products at Prince de Bretagne, a brand owned by various producer organizations, “we lose 10,000 tons of artichoke production every ten years”, and now there are only about 20,000 tons on the peninsula. armoric
How to explain the lack of interest of consumers for these vegetables, which were previously present in families and on the menus of dining rooms?
While meal prep time is reduced, artichokes are considered a time-consuming vegetable to prepare, along with a tendency to want to skip the entree. “A French meal, an appetizer, a main course, a dessert, whether we like it or not, is losing momentum,” laments Mr. Gelipart, emphasizing that it can be done in just ten minutes in the microwave.
Artichokes, in competition with such rare vegetables on our plates as avocados, hardly appeal to the younger generation. “Almost 70% of consumers are over 60,” says Mr. Gelibart.
“vegetables of the brave”
On the product side, horticulturists wonder about the future of artichokes, which have been called “vegetables for the brave” due to the labor time required to grow them, given their low profitability.
“It represents 300 man-hours a year per hectare”, compared to eight hours a year for a cereal field, says Marc Rousseau of his field in Henvic, which offers a beautiful view of Morlaix Bay.
“You have to look for the consumer and get favorable prices, otherwise the producers will get tired and resort to another product. It is a pity that the crops that are part of French gastronomy are disappearing,” adds the gardener, noting that in Italy and Spain the annual consumption is eight to nine kilograms of carciofo and artichoke per person, compared to 400 grams per person. French. .
The protagonists of the world of the artichoke, served for the first time in France at the table of Catherine de Medici in the 16th century and planted around 1810 in the Breton fields, highlight its nutritional properties, its richness in fiber, its deep roots that make it possible to drain the soil well or even its unusual appearance.
“Eating artichokes has many virtues and it has a fun side for children to peel them,” says Arnaud Lécuyer, vice president of the Brittany region in charge of agriculture who has invited social networks to eat this authentic dish of the poor according to the famous word of Colucci.
Another hope of the sector, the Prince of Brittany, who carried out an advertising campaign in the Paris metro, launched the operation with the National Institute of Origin and Quality (Inao) with the aim of obtaining an artichoke protected by Geographical Indication (IGP). ) from Brittany.
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2023-07-03 06:24:00
#Artichoke #endangered #plant #food
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