Founder and director of the Floricotte association, Lolita Enselme intends to take up a major challenge, that of the “slow flower”.
“Relocate the production of cut flowers!
Nine out of ten are currently produced overseas,” she explains.
In order to contribute to this movement, this agricultural engineer founded a structure for integration through economic activity in Geay, in the heart of Charente-Maritime.
Objectives: to train people who are out of work in horticultural and florist trades while producing flowers and plants from organic farming.
"We wish to promote a local and seasonal flower, within the framework of a reasoned and diversified agriculture, far from monoculture", specifies Lolita Enselme who intends "to participate in the safeguarding of a sector in decline while helping these publics to lifting the obstacles to employment – mobility, housing, health”.
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Last spring, the hiring of seven job seekers preceded the first sowing.
Two new contracts will be signed in the coming days.
“We offer them a six-month fixed-term contract for 28 hours of work per week and work on their professional exit project,” explains the agricultural engineer who received financial support from the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region.
The land cultivated by the Floricotte association belongs to the Vinci group.
“He owns this unoccupied farmhouse, adjoining the A10 motorway.
We have signed a six-year lease and only have to pay the running costs and ensure the maintenance of the buildings, ”says Lolita Enselme.
Restoring its letters of nobility to the profession of horticulturist
David Charton was one of the first to join this adventure: “I was trained as a landscape gardener but wanted to acquire new skills in horticulture.
Here, we progress at our own pace, each at our own level, unlike in a company where you have to keep pace.
I like it a lot and I manage to prove myself”.
The Floricotte association primarily targets organic food stores, grocery stores and local garden centers and intends to restore the reputation of the horticultural profession.
“France had 8,000 in 1985, there are only 400 today and we are losing more.
However, our nation has real know-how,” says Lolita Enselme.
