VIDEO – Haut-Rhin: farmers buy a supermarket to sell their products directly to consumers

Products from a supermarket, but for direct sale. Farmers from Haut-Rhin bought a store in Colmar to sell their produce. Vegetables, dairy products, cosmetics… everything is produced within 50 kilometers. “The parsley comes from my farm, so 20 kilometers away. The Rolly farm produces organic apples fifteen kilometers away”, shows Denis Digel, the president of “Cœur paysan”, in the TF1 20H report at the top of this article.

In this store, the 2000 references come from 60 local farms. Enough to fill your shopping basket and above all, without breaking the bank. With the exception of pasta and certain yogurts, which are 10% more expensive than in supermarkets, the prices are equivalent due to low transport costs. “It’s a bit like a small market. It’s a market store and I find it super nice”, testifies a client. “At the supermarket, we don’t know where it comes from and then you might as well make people in the sector work”, says another.

This is exactly what Denis wanted. Five years ago, this local market gardener learned that the old Lidl supermarket was on sale. He then convinced 30 local farmers to buy it back with him. “Farmers who get involved and buy a supermarket, there is obviously a very strong symbolism. In the store, there are not 36 suppliers of pasta, there is only one. there are not 36 suppliers of fruit and vegetables, there are only one or two. Each one is specialized and therefore the consumer knows from whom he is buying and that is what is reassuring “, explains Denis.

This system allows the farmer to better remunerate himself. This is the case for Ange and Coraline who are dairy cow farmers 20 kilometers from Colmar. Thanks to the farmers’ supermarket, they have been able to stop producing milk for mass distribution, which is very unprofitable, by devoting themselves instead to the development of new products such as cheese, yogurts and even cosmetics. They offer a total of 70 references, the prices of which they themselves set. “For our Camembert, we arrive at a price of 18.46 euros per kilo, which can be rounded off to the price of 18.50 euros”, explains Ange.

This price allows him to make two euros of profit per kilo. Which, according to him, would be impossible if he worked with a large surface area. “If we were working with a large distribution, for example, overnight, a competitor could come and say ‘I manage to do it at 17’ and the store will say ‘I take it at 17 from my colleague. Why am I buying it from you at 18? ‘ The price war is clearly deadly today for producers “, says Ange. “And it’s also very satisfying to be able to make a good living, us and our family around, because that necessarily involves employees, staff”, adds Coraline.

In return for being able to sell their products in the supermarket, farmers have to stock their shelves and don the salesman’s hat twice a month. “We can sell meat as well as our cheese, as well as spend time at the cash desk… We have to be multitasking to be able to manage all aspects of the store”, concludes Ange. Every year, the store’s turnover increases by 5%. The success is such that another supermarket opened its doors in Sochaux (Doubs).