Rapport nr - SIFO

2 Agro-food industry2.1 Presentation of French food sectorAs of 2004, the food sector in France is composed of approximately 600 000 producers, 10 000 foodcompanies, several hundred thousand small shops (butchers, bakers, etc.) and 250 000 restaurants.In addition, six main distributors make 90% of the food trade with hyper and supermarkets, wherethese hyper and supermarkets account for more than 80% of the global food sales (Figure 2.1).With regards to the food companies, 90% of them are relatively small with less than 20 employees.Type of Market (2001) Turnover (billions €) % of total market Annual growthMass Market 94 75% 0-1%Health products Market 6 5% 15-20%Terroir products Market 25 20% 5-10%Total 125 100% 1-2%Figure 2.1: French food market (Rastoin, 2001)In the economic food sector, local food represents 20% of the global food market with a very importantgrowth. However, half of these 20 billion turnovers is within the wine sector. The French foodmarket is still a mass market with 75% of the global turnover (Figure 2.1).2.2 Local Food sectorIn this report, we use the notion of “local food product” in its broad sense, which is typically a foodproduct linked to an identified location either by geography or by tradition (i.e. products using SIQOlike regional food, food with PDO - Protected Designation of Origin- or PGI - Protected GeographicalIndication- 3 , small scale food etc) 4 .In 2004, there were 884 brands registered by the INPI (National Institute for Intellectual Protection),which is 20% greater than in 2001.This sector has exploded since the beginning of 2000. The local3 We refer here to the definition used in the French Norwegian project “Consumers conceptions of Local Food”financed by the French Norwegian Foundation and to the three official European signs: Protected Designationof Origin (PDO), Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) and Traditional Speciality Guaranteed (TSG).4 This is further discussed in Amilien and al 2006, page 2