Carrefour sparks row over rare vegetable claims
Carrefour has been accused of misleading claims and jumping on the green bandwagon over its decision to sell unregulated vegetable varieties long abandoned by supermarkets.
Claiming to be 鈥渏oining the farmers鈥� struggle鈥�, Carrefour is offering 12 varieties in 40 of its shops, grown from so-called semences paysannes (鈥榗ountryman seeds鈥�) by local growers in a campaign called march茅 interdit (forbidden market).
It says these, like Ang茅lique squash or pink Armorique onion, are usually de facto 鈥榖anned鈥� as it is not legal to sell their seeds. It says to do so requires registration 鈥� meeting norms and paying a fee of up to 鈧�10,000 鈥� and registered seeds are usually types that give uniform vegetables resistant to transport and dependent on pesticides. It says 96% of varieties are unregulated, so people are deprived of choice, flavours and nutrients.
The Conf茅d茅ration Paysanne farmers鈥� union says there is 鈥渟trong demand from vegetable producers鈥�. However the seed industry body Gnis challenged Carrefour鈥檚 account of why the usual supermarket choice is limited and questioned why it is selling certain varieties and not others.
It said gardeners and seed conservatories have worked hard to preserve old seed kinds abandoned by supermarkets and Gnis regularly pays for such seeds to be registered for sale. Each year 150 varieties go on the market it says and they are tasty and resistant, so fewer chemicals are used.
R茅seau Semences Paysannes, which has pro颅moted the seeds since 2003, said a current revival is due to 鈥減atient, collective work.鈥� It said Carrefour was just trying to gain a new green market.
