Fans of out-of-season fruit for the festive season will not find strawberries and cherries at Intermarché this year. The French retailer has decided to stop the national supply of its supermarkets in December and January to encourage the French to eat seasonal fruit. Consumers will be able to find the first French strawberries on their shelves from February onwards. “It’s an impulse, explains Thierry Cotillard, President of the Mousquetaires group (Intermarché, Netto, Bricomarché). Eating fruit in season and avoiding importing produce from the other side of the world supports the French farm and improves the carbon footprint.”

Read also Retailers and farmers ready to negotiate prices differently

The measure is above all symbolic: the sale of cherries and strawberries represents 1% of the sales of the distributor, whose annual supply of foreign fruit and vegetables is around 30%. But the Groupement could extend this initiative to “other highly seasonal products in the years to come”.depending on results.

This measure is part of a broader strategy by the third-largest food retailer to support food sovereignty in France, “the aim being to increase consumer demand”. for seasonal fruit and vegetables and “to encourage the principle of preference for French production.” To achieve this, Intermarché plans to work with 20,000 local producers within 3 years, compared with 10,000 today, and to launch a label “Intermarché Terroir.