This summer, lovers of hot dogs, small sausages grilled on the barbecue or vinaigrette for their salads are likely to look gloomy. Their dish will lack flavor, and above all… mustard. The precious condiment, which costs only a few euros, has become a rare commodity on supermarket shelves.
The problem comes from Canada, which supplies 80% of the seed processed in France and which faced a severe drought in 2021. A dome of heat falling on the crops destroyed a large part of the production. French manufacturers in the sector are busy trying to find a few batches at reasonable prices, which will allow them to make their mustard. “I’m afraid it will take a while longer before we can restock. It will be tense until 2024”confides Luc Vandermaesen, director of Reine de Dijon and president of the Mustard Association of Burgundy, which brings together the heavyweights of the sector (Amora-Maille, European condiments, Reine de Dijon, Fallot).
If the big mustard makers are on alert, this shortage does not worry the Nancyian Paul-Olivier Claudepierre, who bought with Jean-François Martin in 2015 Martin-Pouret, a house of vinegars, mustards and pickles 100% French, created under the Revolution, in Fleury-les-Aubrais (Loiret), near Orleans. “It’s even an opportunity, a tremendous accelerator. This is an opportunity for the agricultural sector to relocate production, and for the public to realize the absurdity of the situation: we cultivate a seed thousands of kilometers away that we will harvest, bring to the port, to cross the ocean in a container, to end up transforming it at home. It’s expensive, and what a beautiful carbon footprint! »
“I have half a year of stock in advance”
Since 2015, Martin-Pourret has chosen another option, and this is what today saves this SME of eighteen people, after the ordeal of Covid-19, and boosts its turnover. He signed a contract with Benoit Morisseau, a farmer from Pithiverais who bet on reviving this niche crop – mustard resembles rapeseed, but it has been neglected by the common agricultural policy (CAP) for decades, because few remunerative. “The Burgundians began a long time ago to reintroduce the cultivation of mustardhe explains. But the bulk of the seed is still Canada, where they are still at glyphosate. Today, I have half a year of stock in advance. I exclusively supply Martin-Pouret, and the course is guaranteed. »
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