A quarter of the 10,000 food markets in France will reopen this week under strict sanitary conditions, especially in medium-sized towns, which should allow some producers to sell cheese, cold meats or asparagus blocked by the coronavirus epidemic.
The vast majority of reopened markets have fewer than ten traders and are located in small localities, but also in some regional capitals such as Lille, Rennes, Clermont-Ferrand or Grenoble, said the National Federation of Markets and the Ministry of Agriculture and Food.
No derogation for Paris, Alsace, Haute-Corse
In ten departments, no reopening exemption has been granted to date: Paris, Hauts-de-Seine, Seine-Saint-Denis, Haut-Rhin, Bas-Rhin, Haute-Marne, Hautes-Alpes, Var, Haute -Corsica and Guyana.
When all activities not essential to the functioning of the country in France were closed on March 14, the food markets had remained open, declared a priority like supermarkets to feed the confined populations. But the government finally closed them all on March 24 to curb the contagion.
The dissemination on social networks of crowds crowding in the Parisian markets of Aligre and Barbès in particular had moved the health authorities. Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo herself had asked for the ban on all street markets.
Monday, the reopening of a quarter of the markets was allowed by derogation, after the development of a guide to good health practices negotiated Friday between four ministries (Health, Agriculture, Bercy and Interior), the federation of the markets of France , the FNSEA agricultural union and other producer organizations such as the Confédération paysanne, in particular.
"Unequal treatment"
“We are delighted that the situation benefits small producers so that they can sell their production locally, but the fairground traders in the markets are a little forgotten when we see that big cities like Rennes limit the number of traders to 15 while they are normally 300 ”, reacted Monique Rubin, president of the Federation of the markets of France.
"If we knew that this situation was going to last eight or fifteen days, we would accept it, but we still have weeks of confinement before us," she added, asking for more flexibility for the fairground traders who must be able to "Feed the population" confined, just like the large distribution.
“It pays me” newsletter
The newsletter that improves your purchasing powerI'm registering
Your email address is collected by Le Parisien to allow you to receive our news and commercial offers. Find out more
"How are we going to feed the thousands of people who only use them on the markets," she worried, mentioning in particular Seine-Saint-Denis: "The managers of the Saint-Denis market are wiped out" , according to her.
The Federation last week filed an appeal before the Council of State for "unequal treatment" between mass distribution and street markets. "We are hoping for a quick response, perhaps this week," said Rubin.
Rules to respect
The guide to good practice notably asks the town halls to provide staff to organize the circulation of consumers (limited to one per household), to space the stalls, to make available hydroalcoholic gel at the entrance and exit of the market, merchants having to wash their hands between each customer.
The closure of the markets has created disarray among many small producers, in particular PDO cheeses and fishmongers, cheeses, fish and shellfish being already severely penalized by the closure of all restaurants and canteens.
In 15 days, the dairy companies producing cheeses under quality signs registered decreases of turnover going up to 80%, indicated the National Council of the labels of origin of milk (CNAOL): "tomorrow, it will be dairy farmers who will throw away their milk, if nothing is done ”.
