For Agrilocal34, eating nearby also means eating better

Rencontre entre acheteurs et vendeurs aux Jardins de Pézenas. – F. Faux

Visite dans les champs de Pézenas, autour d’une rencontre entre producteurs fermiers et acheteurs de produits locaux organisée par la plateforme Agrilocal34.

How to sell your fruit, vegetable or meat production to colleges, communities, and take advantage of all these public markets often reserved for " big " ? It is this question, which many farmers ask, that the Agrilocal34 platform attempts to answer.
" Everything happens on the internet, explains Bertrand Fritsch, external service provider who is working on this file for the Department. Buyers launch a consultation where they indicate the product sought, the quantity, and the deadlines. Then producers who can respond log in, make an offer. If they are chosen, all that remains is to deliver. "
During the month of March and until April, the Departmental Council organizes a series of meetings between producers and potential buyers. "The platform has existed since 2011 in 38 departments, Hérault was a pioneer, but we are still seeking to develop it, to make it known " , underlines Isabelle Escargue, its coordinator.
In the meeting which took place around the greenhouses of the Jardins de Pézenas, Matthieu Veyssade, who raises pigs outdoors in Florensac, was particularly attentive. " I am in a very qualitative market, for butchers, restaurateurs, but if I have more institutional clients who offer me a certain regularity of order, that I’m interested, he assures. On the other side of the knife, Daniel Fernandez, head of the kitchens at Olargues college, already buys 25% of his products via Agrilocal. For Bruno Cavaillès, who works in the kitchens of the Jean-Moulin high school in Pézenas, "it’s 100 % of the meat ".

Offer surplus

Another advantage of the platform is that it can also be used by producers to offer surplus products directly, at discounted prices. This is particularly what Florent Belle Albaret, from the Jardins de Pézenas, does: " I have a very diversified production that I sell on the markets from Pézenas and Agde. But when I can't sell everything, I use Agrilocal… It would be too stupid to throw away. I'm also going to do it for the squash that I'm going to produce this year, on a large area. "
Buyers on Agrilocal mostly come from the collective catering – educational establishments, hospitals, retirement homes – but the platform is also open to any out-of-home catering business and seeks to diversify.
The sellers are often producers but can also be food artisans or local processing companies.
The interest of the system is to organize a market, competition, with criteria that everyone can choose: " You can, for example, select the only organic potato producers within a 30 kilometer radius of your home. Everything is geolocated, and the service is free ", assures Bertrand Fritsch.
Today, Agrilocal brings together 470 suppliers (including 30% organic), 181 buyers, for 1,034 referenced products and for an annual turnover of 200,000 ;euros. Transactions which therefore still remain modest, but which are essential for certain farmers.

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