Burdened by taxes and loans, protesting against the downward pressure of mass distribution, suffocating themselves from margins in supermarkets and screaming against foreign competition, farmers have started a vast protest movement throughout France, to the gates of Paris. If the French understand their anger, are they only able to support them by doing their shopping? That’s what 20 minutes wanted to know while shopping in a supermarket of a large distribution group, in Lille, in the North.
On our list we had meat, eggs, milk, vegetables and fruit. The goal is to fill our basket with two products of each, one produced in France and the other not. Our first target, the fruit and vegetable section. The first thing that jumps out at you is also the most logical: you can’t find any French product that isn’t in season. In terms of fruit, if you want to eat French, you have to choose between apples from Normandy, bananas from Guadeloupe, kiwis or pears. The first two do not find a foreign competitor on the shelves, on the other hand, for kiwis, Italy is fining us with a price displayed at 0.33 cents per piece compared to 0.65 for that produced in France. On the other hand, Italian or French Williams pears are displayed at the same price, 3.99 euros per kilo.
Mostly French products
On the vegetable side, the same fight, the main part is given locally for carrots, turnips, celery, cauliflower, potatoes, endives. Forget local tomatoes, unless you settle for cherry tomatoes, offered at 6.99 euros/kg for French ones compared to 5.99 euros/kg for those produced in Morocco. The good deal is the local, organic pumpkin, sold for 2.39 euros each, while the Peruvian pumpkin costs almost a euro more. The same brand also offers French lettuce heart salad at 10 euros/kg while that from Spain is priced at 17.86 euros/kg. Apart from the country of origin, the only difference being the packaging.
For meat, it’s impossible to find foreign pork. If we discover French and Irish beef in the same aisle, the comparison would be distorted since they are different cuts. For leg of lamb, it is that of Ireland which is the cheapest at 19 euros/kg, or 5 euros less than local lamb. Same conclusion for chicken fillet, 13 euros/kg for French compared to 11.65 euros/kg for Belgian. On the other hand, we found smoked ham from pork raised in France in private label at 20.63 euros/kg while another from a major brand, labeled “from European Union”, is almost 6 euros more expensive. .
For eggs and milk, it is impossible to find foreign products. The supermarket only offers local products and this is obvious on the packaging. In fact, communication around “product in France” is omnipresent and no brand hesitates to display it in large letters on its products. So, since we have no choice for these two products, we might as well buy those that pay the producers the best. Count 0.33 euros/piece for a fair trade egg and 0.29 euros/piece for the others. A liter of “fairly priced” milk is priced between 1.26 euros and 1.30 euros, while the cheapest costs between 0.95 and 1.06 euros/L. Special mention for honey “from EU and non-EU origins” which is between 5 and 10 euros cheaper per kilo than French honey.