Bad news for the portfolio of the French: after the rise in the price of gasoline, gas, food products and back-to-school supplies, it is the turn of fruits and vegetables to be impacted. According to an article in Le Parisien on Tuesday August 16, 2022, expect to have to pay more from the start of the school year to buy tomatoes, peaches, eggplants, carrots and salads.
Indeed, if the frost had spared the crops last winter, this summer’s heat wave did not do the harvest any good. “We have between 30 and 35% loss in fields on average,” laments the president of vegetable producers.
“Our products suffer from water stress and come out much smaller”, confirms the president of the fruit producers to our colleagues. In the south of France, farmers were able to reduce the damage, accustomed to dealing with near-dry conditions every summer.
But farmers in the north of the country find themselves destitute without the help of the regular rains that pour down on their plantations. The emergency? Think about farming methods adapted to climate change, as the president of the vegetable producers believes: “We must all act so that our trades and our cultures continue. Otherwise, one day, we will produce tomatoes in the north and the south can only grow rice!”
In the meantime, consumers are likely to cringe when they go shopping next September. According to TF1, prices have already increased on the stalls of certain markets. “Count from 2 to 3 euros extra for a kilogram of tomatoes, or even melons from Charente, the price of which has doubled”, evokes a report from the channel.
A blow for customers, who have already suffered an 11% increase in fruit and vegetables over the past year (from July 2021 to July 2022). The Rural Families consumer association published an observatory of everyday life prices on Friday July 22, 2022. Peach (25%), peppers (37%), vine tomatoes (31%) and green beans (21% ) are designated as the commodities whose price has increased the most in recent months.
