Leading activity sector
With annual net turnover estimated at 138 billion euros in 2004 (including 28 billion euros for export), this sector is the lead economic player in France ahead of the automobile and engineering industries, and second ranked in the world just behind the United States. Grouping some 10,481 businesses (90% of them small to medium sized businesses 5% of which have a 250+ workforce and 30% have less than 20 employees), the agro-foods sector employs some 418,500 people. Food wholesale represents just under 160,000 employs nationwide including 27,000 in Ile-de-France and nearly 12,000 in the Val-de-Marne.
As the leading French department for the agro-foods sector, the Val-de-Marne counts some 3,500 businesses that employ 42,267 people. It is mainly organised around Rungis International Market (the world's leading fresh produce market) and the Alfort Special Interest Group. Furthermore, this department is also home to one of France's most dynamic business centres, the Orly-Rungis centre (Rungis MIN, Centre Belle Epine, ADP, Silic and Sogaris zones, 2,000 hectares and 63,000 jobs all sectors taken together), second ranked in the Ile-de-France after La Défense.
New business areas…
The agro-foods industry, substantially supported by wholesale markets, is a sector in full expansion, leading to the creation of new business areas and thus requiring new skills. Driving these recruiting needs are the following: innovation and new products, automation and production, internationalisation, regulations, services, distribution, and so on. This results in the creation of new business areas in the wholesale sector, in particular at the Rungis MIN which is a focus of innovative skills. These new business areas include quality specialists and certifiers (fruits and vegetables), working in line with the latest food health and safety regulations, and product quality officers.
Jobs such as Head of Corporate Consultancy and Development, New Products Designer / Sourcing Manager all point to the ongoing innovative spirit of this sector. Other jobs such as logistics officer, telephone salesperson, delivery-round manager, fish filleter or sales representative are related to developments in services, distribution and storage platforms and customer closeness. Lastly, the job of import-export manager reflects the growing importance of international trade to wholesale markets.
Sources : (ANIA, CGI, CCI-Paris, CCI 94, Apca, Credoc, Agence de développement 94)
Francis Duriez
Pro reviews
Jean-Michel Thirion
(Designer of new food products for the company Sens Gourmet)
« As an Agrologist specialising in industrial food processing, I ran wholesaler purchasing in Benelux (42,000 product references) and designed new products. We provide solutions for the restaurant sector by designing new products, their manufacturing procedures and the sourcing of new ingredients. Distributed at Rungis, some of these products have been awarded prizes: fruit juice sprays with vinegar (Sial d’or 2004), chocolate croquettes (European "Innovation" prize 2004), apricot stone oil (mentioned at the Ethnic Food Show 2005), El Bulli texturisers (Special Jury's prize - Sirest 2006), Oli-Ola oil/vinegar mixer (best packaging 2005 in New York). This new and upcoming business area requires a creative approach and an ability to foresee coming market needs and thereby completes the wholesale market offer for innovative niche products ».
Alban Rousseau
(Head of corporate consultancy, research and development for the company Le Delas)
« Before joining Le Delas, I spent two and a half years at the Georges V hotel with Philippe Legendre before moving on to work for Alain Ducasse. At Le Delas, I design and develop new recipes to produce new product ranges targeting a sector-based professional demand from butchers, caterers, restaurateurs and charcutiers whose products may be stocked by major retail outlets. This can involve a range of different recipes based on a single basic product, but always of the very best quality, thereby promoting traditional French regional dishes. I draft a technical data sheet that gives the customer information on the recipe's price, ingredients and cost per portion. I try to make the recipes easy enough for anyone to make them, even those with little cooking experience. To do this job you have to have a heightened sense of curiosity and be able to adapt to all situations. I create six recipes per week depending on the products available ».
Carlos Miguel
(Fruit and vegetable certifier for the company Exofarm)
« Once we have received the goods, I systematically inspect and approve product quality, temperature, incoming volumes, labelling, and so on. In the event of nonconformity, we perform an in-depth approval procedure with sample taking, photos of the products and inspection of each individual characteristic to assess the amount of defects and notify our sales department via an approval report. We also notify the producer of any recorded defects in order to correct or revise prices. We are often faced with two recurrent problems: labelling that does not conform to standards requirements and unsatisfactory external product quality (i.e. skin defects). If everything is normal, the batch receives a conformity number. Approval is the first phase underpinning the proper running of the company. This is a business area in itself whose development is closely linked to the ever growing number of regulations ».
Franck Poteaux
(Import-export manager for the company SNDE Drevin Exotics)
« I run an office that specialises in the import-export of exotic fruits and vegetables excluding product leaders. A graduate of an international business school (ESSEC), I was export manager with a major agro-foods group before joining the Drevin company which I then went on to buy. As the leading French importer of cassava and 3rd-ranked importer of ginger we supply Rungis wholesalers (40%), regional wholesalers (30%) and export to the EU (30%). We import products from South America, South Africa and Asia by plane and boat, and distribute them at the Rungis MIN and in the provinces. Our business area is relatively new and in constant development. We have to be able to get to a product's source area, speak several languages including English and Spanish, be capable of rapid response, demonstrate a go-ahead approach and be able to forecast market trends in order to source new products ».
Benoit Derache
(Sales manager for the company IP Viandes)
« After graduating from a Butcher's College and working at several companies and slaughterhouses, I joined IP Viandes as Client Manager. I prospect for butchers and retailers selling meat products, charcuterie and cured meats in the Paris region in order to offer them new pork and beef products. For the same reason, and to build customer loyalty, I make regular visits to new customers. This is a fairly new business area in our sector which requires a strong character, extensive knowledge of products and prices, an ability to effectively identify customer demand, perfect mastery of sales techniques and an ability to develop strategies according to the needs of the latter given that we are faced with very strong competition on our market ».
David Locqueneux
(Fish buyer and filleter for the company Les Pêcheries des Lilas)
« Although I started out as a chef, I became a buyer and then filleter of fish products. To be successful in this difficult business and to excel in filleting techniques requires in particular sound knowledge of all the various fish products, especially their composition, technical skill with and impeccable maintenance of your knives (which should never, ever be lent out!), perfect mastery of fish handling techniques and the various cutting methods, an ability to accurately calculate the weight and number of fillets to be lifted depending on the species, resistance to cold, a strong constitution to keep up with work rates and attention to detail to prevent the occurrence of accidents, which are actually quite rare. This business area has developed in line with demand from commercial or institutional restaurants which no longer have the time to do this work. ».
Patrick Verlin
(Logistics and Deliveries Manager for the company RHC)
« My job is to analyse transportation budgets and costs and streamline them to fit customer specifications, manage investments, optimise performance, handle customer relationships and incidents of any nature, or even plan ahead for them and manage a 40-strong workforce. My daily challenge is to deliver 80 t of perishable produce (dairy produce and cured meats) to 500 delivery addresses, between 07.00 and 11.00. We take orders up to 23.30 for delivery the following day from 04.00. Our site (2,500 product references) is also used as a distribution platform by the Elior Group (dairy produce, cured meats, meat, and soon poultry). Our customer base breaks down as outside the home catering (80%), retail (5%) and airline catering service (15%). The logistics officer's guiding principle is profitability, and the lowest possible logistics cost (storage and delivery). As a fairly new business area that is exciting but energy-intensive, this job requires high levels of responsiveness and availability (from 06.00 to 21.00). ».
Céline Lascaux
(Telephone salesperson for the company Sicaer Rungis)
« Sicaer specialises in the distribution of ready-to-use and prepared fruits and vegetables exclusively to restaurants and institutional catering centres. At the Sicaer Restauration Department I am in charge of part of our customer base (150 accounts) within the institutional catering sector in Paris and handle some sixty-odd orders daily. In addition to taking orders, I advise customers on seasonal products; as such I act on behalf of my customers in relations with the various departments at our company. In order to advise the customer it is essential to know the products (800 different product references), their taste, appearance, maturity, and so on. We aim to tailor our services to fit the customer and meet their quality and lead time requirements while always remaining polite and cheerful when on the phone ».
Caroline Pénicaud
(Quality, health and safety manager for the company IP Viandes)
« As an agrologist specialising in agro-foods I received system quality training. Within IP Viandes and the companies Jauno and SIBA, my role is to ensure food and taste quality of the products sold at the market and also the safety of persons, in compliance with the regulations and with European health and HACCP regulations in particular. The main risk is microbiological; I do everything I can to prevent the various sources of contamination after bacteriological analysis of the products, making sure there is no break in the cold chain and complying with traceability regulations. I also run cleaning operations for the premises, persons, equipment and materials at risk that are in contact with meat. I liaise with people in a number of departments, i.e. veterinary officers, fraud officers, etc. This business area developed in the 1990s in response to successive health scares ».
Gérard Guigon
(Delivery-round manager for the company RHC)
« A became a delivery-round manager after having been a driver-delivery officer for forty years. The job involves optimising the vehicle fleet while respecting customers' time slots. We have 35 insulated vehicles including 22 heavy lorries and 10 light duty vehicles all temperature-controlled and equipped with GPS. We deliver to Paris and the surrounding area within a 60-km radius. We work under heavy constraints and have to face considerable difficulty: traffic, schedules, pollution, delivery areas, breakdowns, lack of personnel, distribution of delivery rounds, overloaded or empty vehicles, management of delivery costs, to name just a few. We operate 7/7 and 24/24; three of us manage delivery rounds or delivery platforms. This job requires high levels of availability, responsiveness and organising ability. This business area is continually upgrading to stay in line with the latest technological developments and is growing to meet increased delivery demands thereby providing a genuine top-quality customer service ».
Isabelle Pellion
(Manager of the Semmaris / Rungis Employment Office)
« As there is no longer an employment agency operating at the Rungis MIN we signed a partnership agreement with the ANPE (the French Employment Agency) to enable companies at Rungis Market to take advantage of a first-rate recruitment service and to provide the ANPE with easier access to companies. All business areas and trades are represented, from counter and sales assistant to cashier-billing clerk, from goods handler to quality engineer and also to a certain number of new business areas that are currently in full expansion: fish filleter, logistics officer, telephone salesperson, import-export manager and so on. Open every day (Monday-Friday from 08.30-12.30 - Tel.: +33 (0)1 41 80 81 92) you can submit your CV and look up information on the various trades operating at the MIN. This office was an absolute necessity ».
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