85% of French smoked salmon processing plants commit to quality charter

Nine of France’s biggest companies are involved in 85% of French smoked salmon production. And consumers want more quality produce.

France’s main smokehouses have decided to commit themselves to a quality charter – that took fifteen years to draft – in order to be more transparent with the process’ and stages involved in fabriqué en France smoked salmon according to lsa-conso.fr.

Big 9
Labeyrie, Delpeyrat, King Fjord, Guyader, Moulin de la Marche, Saumextra and le Borvo have all signed up.

The charter focuses on six main points, that demonstrate all stages of the preparation of smoked salmon, from fish imports, to packaging.

Poland
Under the hood however, it’s a way to distinguish their own foodstuffs, from Europe’s leading smoked salmon producers, Poland.

“Let’s be realistic. Faced with Poland, we will never win, the cost of labor requires, the battle of price and volumes. It’s up to us to make a difference and to have our French know-how recognized by our know-how,” explained Jacques Trottier, General Manager of Labeyrie and President of the Smoked Salmon Commission within the Fresh Catering Enterprises Association (ETF) to the publication.

Less but more quality
The France eat less salmon, but prefer better quality produce overall. But still, even under these conditions, the French are the biggest consumers in Europe.

Between October 2017 et October 2018, more than 32,721 tons were eaten in France overall, with nearly 18,000 tonnes bought in supermarkets and other purchasing channels according to Boursorama.

That trend is reflected in the figures by a decrease in volumes of 6.3% and a valuation of revenue of + 0.8%, according to the latest Nielsen data in 2018 reported in the same publication. The decline in volumes mainly concerns high end product prices (12.7%).

The charter is the result of fifteen years of work within the industry. “At first, we address our customers distributors. A reflection is underway for the establishment of a logo that could see light in 2019, ” said Guillaume Argand, president of Meralliance Armoric.

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