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In Ile-de-France, the horticultural sector is regaining color

2021-03-26T12:16:46.296Z


Flowers from the Ile-de-France region are more and more in demand. At the Rungis market, professionals note that the activity - abandoned lasted


Enveloped by their scents and colors, Bruno Mangini speaks of his flowers with delicacy and love, just like the way he cultivates them.

Here tulips, there buttercups and freesias, over there lily of the valley ready for May 1st ...

This horticulturist from Ollainville (Essonne) is one of the growers supplying "100% Ile-de-France" flowers to the Rungis market (Val-de-Marne) which supplies thousands of florists in the Paris region and in the provinces.

Because there is no need to travel to Holland or Kenya to obtain refined bouquets.

Proximity is even becoming an asset.

"Renewed interest"

Indeed, the sector of flowers cultivated in Ile-de-France has experienced "renewed interest" with the public and florists for four or five years, according to Olivier Mauregard, horticulturalist on the plain of Chailly-en-Bière (Seine -et-Marne): "This phenomenon has amplified with the health crisis: there is a Covid effect, with a peak in demand after the containment in spring 2020."

He cultivates thirty to forty varieties and sells them at the Rungis market from April 15 to the end of November.

“Our customers - the florists - increasingly demand local and seasonal flowers.

"

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"We feel that people are keen to make French and local producers work, especially since the Covid crisis," adds Bruno Mangini.

Today there is a whole generation of new florists highlighting flowers from the Ile-de-France region.

"

Among them, Désirée in Paris (11th and 19th centuries) or Mélanie, from Mél'ange Fleurie in Sartrouville (Yvelines).

She goes to Rungis every week and regularly selects Bruno Mangini's tulips, Olivier Mauregard's country florets or hydrangeas from a nurseryman in the Ile-de-France region, seduced by their quality and the short circuit side.

"There were nearly 330 farmers in the Ile-de-France region forty years ago in Rungis"

"The attraction for Ile-de-France flowers has been returning for some time, but with the Covid, it has become even more fashionable", confirms Jean-Claude Chevalier, who was a horticulturalist in Villejuif (Val-de-Marne) and present at the market de Rungis until his retirement a few months ago.

He was the last horticulturist in Villejuif.

He failed to find a buyer.

A shame as the clientele shows an appetite for the local flower.

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“You should know that the sector was completely abandoned for years, recalls Bruno Mangini.

We found ourselves drowned among foreign imports.

"We were nearly 330 Ile-de-France growers forty years ago in Rungis, compared to around twenty today," notes Olivier Mauregard.

“Pavilion C1 was not large enough to accommodate local producers, they had to be placed all around outside,” confirms Bruno Mangini.

Bruno Mangini is a horticulturalist in Ollainville in Essonne.

He is one of the handful of professionals in the Ile-de-France region still present on the Rungis market to sell their production.

LP / ML  

Both remember the flourishing past of Ile-de-France horticulture.

Grisy-Suisnes (Seine-et-Marne) counted up to 250 rose growers between the end of the 18th century and 1960. The sector had developed there thanks to Admiral de Bougainville and his gardener who succeeded in grafting rose bushes. .

The quantities produced were enormous: up to 85,000 tonnes in 1899 for example.

A railway line dedicated to transporting flowers at the end of the 19th century

From 1860, the flowers were transported to the Bastille station in Paris by a railway line called the Train des Roses.

Most of the flowers were sold to the Halles de Paris, Rungis' predecessor, others were exported.

The industry collapsed in the 1960s, faced with competition from cheap roses imported from Holland.

Today, there are three rose growers in Grisy.

And the old way of the Train of Roses has been transformed into a path for pedestrians and bicycles.

Mandres-les-Roses (Val-de-Marne) suffered the same fate, on a lesser scale.

Rose growers flourished there from the beginning of the 20th century (until 24 in 1962) before declining.

“I am the last rose grower in Mandres

(Editor's note: and Val-de-Marne)

, announces Philippe Venet.

We resist: we are present at Rungis, we are developing direct sales, favoring fragrant rather than classic roses, etc.

According to him, the sector has declined in the face of competition, imports and the absence of buyers.

A short circuit that allows "incomparable freshness"

However, the Ile-de-France flower has a future and advantages, according to Bruno Mangini: "It does not necessarily cost more, it is of very good quality and lasts longer than certain imported flowers which will have traveled a very long time before arriving. at the store.

With us, they are cut on Wednesday morning and are in Rungis on Thursday at 1 am.

They will have an incomparable freshness.

This also allows us to cut them when ripe.

"

Flowering 100% locally, however, presents some constraints: "You have to know how to give up finding tulips in July and peonies in December," explains Bruno Mangini. In fact, the ideal for a lover of seasonal and local bouquets is to stock up with midday flowers in winter (Var, etc.) and those from Ile-de-France in spring and summer. 'summer. "

Source: leparis

All news articles on 2021-03-26

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