How did you start ?

When we created our company in 2002, we knew we were going into a highly competitive market, with four major players in this product range, who also cover other key products. In fact, our idea was to be the first company to work exclusively with fresh wild mushrooms, which nobody does here at Rungis, by creating the most efficient space possible in terms of quality control and the freshness of the products.

What products do you sell ?

We sell all wild and farmed mushrooms, whether fresh, dried or frozen, along with exotic mushrooms from Korea and China (shitaké, enoki, shimeji, eryngii, etc.). With 1 000 tons a year, we are among the world leaders in the market. Our flagship products are the chanterelle (60% of volumes) which we supply all year round; then the cep (the supply is trickier), the morel (seven months of the year) and all the others (wood hedgehog, horn of plenty) including the Caesar’s mushroom (rare and expensive). We sell about fifteen varieties in several packaging solutions (125g, 1 kg, 3 kg), which represents about 50 listed products. The French market represents 60 to 70% of sales (40% large and medium-sized retailers, 20% provincial wholesalers, 15% Rungis) and exports total 30 to 35%. The frozen and dried products represent 5 to 10% of volumes. We do not carry button mushrooms, or oyster mushrooms. We also distribute truffles from China (tuber indicum), totalling about 8 tons a year, and the black truffle from Périgord (tuber melanosporum), which represents about 50 kg a year.

How do you work ?

We have close relationships with our suppliers, the pickers, and human and relational factors are very important in this market, both upstream and downstream. You have to be honest and consistent. Today, we are in a very strong buying position on a good number of destinations throughout the world (60 sources), and the same is true in sales. We export a lot to Hong Kong, Tokyo, Singapore and other Asian countries, South America, the USA and the EU.  Our personnel are trained for particularly efficient sorting and top quality packaging. Product quality and efficiency are essential in our company. We control the whole packaging chain for our products (line choice, selective sorting, traceability, controlled temperature, labelling, shipping, etc.).

Do you have a development strategy ?

It consists in increasing in terms of volume and value while keeping the same quality attitude. In the last eight years we have increased our sales fourfold. We are also trying to move towards so-called “complicated” upmarket clients, who look for value added and also have demands in terms of quality.

Similarly, we are going to consolidate our relationships with suppliers and clients. Lastly, one avenue for our development would be to use a common hub with other operators for taking delivery and shipping goods and sharing cold rooms and expenses.

What is your opinion of the mushroom market ?

It’s a very competitive market in France, especially as France is a major player in fresh mushrooms internationally and Rungis is the hub for wild mushrooms.  Furthermore, the competition from Eastern Europe is growing fast, particularly Poland. Fresh mushrooms are also losing market share in relation to frozen mushrooms, and the younger generations are less interested in cooking and eating fresh mushrooms. All these parameters force us to sell the highest quality products possible. Nevertheless, fresh mushroom consumption in the catering trade appears to be stable or even growing.

What do you think of Rungis Market ?

It is essential for us, and we could not develop our business without it, particularly on the logistics level. It’s a large window onto the diversity of products; a benchmark in France and around the world, a major forum for the clientele and we are very satisfied with it. However, we would like to have ground floor premises equipped with platforms.