Les Mousquetaires has launched a new private label brand of apple named 'Mon Marché Plaisir'.
The line includes produce that meets France’s Association Nationale Pommes Poires ‘Vergers’ standard, which lauds ecologically sound sourcing and supply practices.
Apples of the Golden Delicious, Gala, Granny Smith, Red Delicious, Chantecler, Delisdor, and Canada varieties are to be sold under Mon Marché Plaisir in 1,800 Mousquetaires retail units.
Thirteen-hundred apple farms will supply the chain with such produce, which will be stamped with the Vergers label.
Their methods fulfil the six criteria of: prioritising biodiversity; favouring organic methods; limiting intervention in orchards; picking apples by hand at the point of optimum ripeness; guaranteeing traceability of the supply chain; and employing an external body to monitor and ensure good practice.
The decision to launch Mon Marché Plaisir was influenced by a 2015 TNS Sofres consumer poll which found that 20% of French consumers have less confidence in the fresh produce they buy than they once did, with regard to sourcing practices, modes of production, etc.
Seventy-one percent of respondents thought large-scale retailers should do more to promote responsible production of fruit and vegetables.
© 2016 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Peter Donnelly. To subscribe to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine, click here.
