“Immigrant pickers live in shantytowns made of plastic that was previously used to cover the strawberry fields. These are living conditions that are generally found in developing countries. Philip Alston, the UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty, can't get over it. “By Spanish standards, it's shocking. "
In February 2020, he visited the small Andalusian town of Lepe, in the Huelva region, where most European strawberries are produced. "It was dismal," he continues, adding to the procession of reports published in recent years in the international press. "In Spain, workers in the strawberry fields denounce their ill-treatment," headlined the New York Times in 2019. "Rape and assault: the price to pay to work in the strawberry industry in Spain," asserted the Guardian a few months earlier. "Workers are paid between 30 and 35 euros per day," reports Philip Alston. This is less than the 41.20 euros gross provided for in Spain by the sector collective agreement - and it is much less than the French minimum wage for the same work, 71.05 € gross the 7-hour day. We understand better why, when they arrive in our stalls, Spanish strawberries are up to three times cheaper than their Spanish neighbors, according to figures from France Agrimer.
Intensive production
Spain produces intensively: 360,000 tonnes per year, compared to only 54,000 tonnes for France. Compared to cultivated land, the figures are even more eloquent: 49 tonnes per hectare for Spain compared to only 18 per hectare for France (source: Eurostat, 2019). In addition, to sell strawberries before the season, Spanish growers do not hesitate to use heated greenhouses, often fuel oil, which are very harmful to the environment.
To face the competition, French agronomists have chosen to bet on taste by developing new varieties: in the wake of the gariguette born in the 1970s (on stalls from March to June), the ciflorette was created in 1998 (from March to July) and charlotte in 2004 (from mid-March to October).
And the taste, then?
But is the difference in flavor so striking between the products grown in one country or the other? To have a clear heart, Victor Mercier tasted three strawberries from three different countries blindly. This former Top Chef candidate opened a “patriotic” restaurant named FIEF a few months ago for “Made Here in France”. Convinced that priority should be given to made in France, he even published a petition this spring "For food sovereignty post Covid 19". "I hope my favorite will be the French strawberry," he says a little anxiously, during the tasting.
And the winner is… Dutch, at € 5.50 for 500 g, tied with French, for € 4.75 for 500 g. "It's really not expensive for strawberries," comments the chef. I do not buy a 500 g tray for less than 5-6 euros ”.
Suffice to say that the last specimen, Spanish, at 2.85 € per 500 g, is light years away from its standards. “There is a producer, an intermediary, a distributor. But, in fact, where do they make money? At that price, there is bound to be someone who is tricked. ” Then come back to us the images of Lepe, his plastic huts and his underpaid immigrant workers…
