To go from the ground to the plate, fruits and vegetables, meat or fish, most often pass through wholesale markets. Their functioning is often misunderstood.
If Rungis is the largest agricultural market in the world, it is not the only one in France. 25 wholesale markets are spread over the territory, almost all ‘National Interest Market’, the MIN. These are public services, wanted by General de Gaulle, to feed post-war France, in the midst of reconstruction, and which bring together fresh produce – fruit, vegetables, meat and seafood.
Stéphane Layani is the CEO of Rungis: “It’s a very advanced idea of a master plan and organization of logistics, from that time. It needed points of concentration of the agricultural supply to redistribute it in the areas where there was a certain population.”
Today, two-thirds of the products that arrive on our plates pass through the National Interest Markets. The rest is provided by the purchasing centers of large retailers. At Rungis, 13,000 people work in 1,200 companies, more than six million visitors pass by each year, and fruit and vegetables account for almost three quarters of the products.
This model does not destroy traditional commerce
Rungis now supports wholesale markets around the world. It must be said that his model is well established. Stéphane Layani explains: “It is a model that favors fresh and seasonal food, and which does not destroy traditional trade, since we are the purchasing center for small businesses, open-air markets, organic markets, restaurants and collective catering.
We should add that 99% of the waste is recycled at Rungis, that waste water is used there for washing the floors, and soon the 240 hectares of the market will be covered with photovoltaics. Beyond ensuring self-sufficiency, this “homemade” electricity will make it possible to produce hydrogen for delivery trucks.
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