Daughter and granddaughter of Lot cabinetmakers but born in the Ile-de-France, Caroline Crayssac has always loved flowers…

“I’ve always loved nature, so I was quick to sign up for floriculture studies. At 15, I enrolled in a professional school where I obtained my BEP [certificate of vocational proficiency] before moving on to a BT [technician’s licence] in Brittany and a BTS [higher technician’s licence] by correspondence course. I then spent a year deepening my knowledge of in vitro plant breeding. At 22, I left for Perpignan to work for a producer specialising in bedding plants and Pelargonium breeding. Shortly after, I moved to Beauvais and a laboratory conducting research on in vitro culture, where I was assistant to a researcher who was experimenting on splitting potato protoplasm. I then gained experience in trading before returning home to the Paris region. One of my aunts, who was a wholesaler in the fruit and vegetable sector, introduced me to one of her friends who was looking for someone to take on her company, called Mascret, at Rungis. I was very motivated, and so I joined the team and learned the job, and at 28 years old I became delegated trading agent for the company. I took the advice of the longstanding pros in the business and left for the Midi to build up a wide network of producers.

I currently deal directly with twenty-two producers from Brittany and the Midi. Three of us manage to keep things “running”; a cashier girl, “Isa” our consultant, and myself. We only sell seasonal flowers from Brittany and the Midi. We follow the natural production cycles that nature has set. Our flagship products include florets including anemones, buttercups (Friandine), broom, mimosa, Midi freesias, violets, narcissus, marigolds, carnations, and of course… beautiful lily-of-the-valley from Nantes region, which we sell in pots or as stems. We make our highest sales on florets, at over 60,000 bunches/year, and roses at 38,000. Alstroemeria, which wasn’t even marketed when I first took on the company, today sells at 23,000 bunches/year. As a group, our customers are split between retail florists and market florists, many of whom come from outside the capital (Vierzon, Rouen, Orleans, Saint-Dizier, Nancy and Reims, among others). I love my job and the people at Rungis. Rungis is like Eden for florists – the only place to have a major customer base”.