Rapport nr - SIFO

1 Introduction“We cannot govern a country with more than 258 different cheeses” said Charles De Gaulle.France has occasionally appeared as a reference for food and food culture. This reputation,mainly attributed to the wine and cheese sector and also by the lifestyle to produce theseproducts, allows France to be the second leading exporter of food in the world. The structureof the food sector is paradoxical enough with large distributors (i.e. Leclerc, Carrefour, SystemU) as well as an omnipresence throughout the country of small stores, butchers, bakersand other open markets. The second main characteristic of this food sector is the wine sectorand its power, taking into account the economics or number of producers. Historically andculturally, wine is a pillar of the French lifestyle and tradition.The diversity of production between the small local producers and the large distributor brandsmust be considered in an analysis of the French food sector. This variety of food products,thus, led and in some ways obliged France to protect this product diversity and richness.France has a strong industrial and service sector, with less than 6 % of the national turnovercreated by the Agricultural sector, despite the fact that the agricultural power is still relativelystrong and often represented in the European Union (EU) for agricultural support. However,to produce food products, one does not only need Agro-food companies but also producers.Therefore, this is the reason for realising a sectoral description in order to understand themechanism of this part of the French economy. To further understand this food sector, thisstudy investigates every dimensions of the sector, from the production to the commercialisation,pointing out the exchange and the link between each step of the sector. This report presentsan description of the French food sector as well as the main official signs of quality,detailing the type, management, and policy. Then, the new local marketing is taken into considerationfollowed by an identification of the local food consumers.First, the French food sector is difficult to initially characterize. Indeed, it is a very old sectorwith an implication of food in most areas of the French culture, although there have been recentmodifications due to the food crisis of the 1990’s. The organisation of the production,distribution, and commercialisation was totally renovated, due to new consumer expectationsas well as from changes to National and European regulations. Sanitary regulations, managedby the French sanitary system, required important improvements in the condition of production,manufacturing, and distribution processes. These adaptations are also a result of newconsumer expectations. Currently it is possible that Consumers want much more assuranceabout the safety of products as well as about price or taste maybe in a lot of part influencedby media and their mediation of food crisis... In order to answer to this new consumer demand,the number of labelled products exploded, ensuring quality and traceability. The applicationand management of those official signs of quality can be quite complex, since they aregrouped according to time, companies, producers, agricultural unions in a limited territory.National committees organise this attribution of labels, PDO or PGI. However, the complexityand the time needed to create an appellation result in the current prestige of those officialsigns of quality. PDO and PGI, edited by EU, are excellent tools for rural development, andsince one aim of the EU is to transform its agriculture towards a qualitative one, the use ofPDO and PGI also improves the valorisation of farming products. Official signs of quality,