Why are potatoes and onions so expensive in France?

[vivienz]

Or is it just my imagination?

I'll be getting some lovely Cornish new potatoes in the market (England) tomorrow morning and it put me in mind of recent grumbes to hubby whenever I go to the supermarket in France about the price of spuds and onions.  They do seem to be much more expensive in Brittany, either supermarket or market, than in blighty.

Incidentally, I cooked Sunday lunch for the family last weekend and we had new potatoes with it.  Sister in law is a chef and as the potatoes were going on to cook, added in a very generous scoop of butter and a large sprig of mint.  I tried them before they were buttered and minted again for serving and it did make a very delicious difference.  The butter in the cooking water seemed to make them more.....umm....can't find the word, but the texture had changed somehow, for the better.

[EuroTrash]

I thought that traditionally it was the price of cauliflowers that people complain about...

:-)

[idun]

In a department far far from Brittany, we found most everyday food shopping expensive.

My

son is a chef. He uses the markets rather than supermarkets which I

would call farmer's markets and complains about the lack of choice of

potatoes. 

I cannot ever remember seeing new potatoes in France, not the dinky ones I see in the UK.

Never heard of putting butter in with the water with potatoes, but I do put a sprig of mint in with new potatoes. Were these potatoes new potatoes with the skins on? The only recipe I use with butter in with potatoes is when I make fondant potatoes, which are a waff and I do not make them very often.

[andyh4]

I can think of a couple of reasons for higher prices in France.

Firstly the UK supermarkets screw the price of products they buy into the ground. This means that many farmers in the UK are only able to make minimal returns for their efforts.

Secondly in the UK there is little loyalty to British products. So if UK spuds are too expensive we are offered Egyptian or Cyprian potatoes - which is the lever the supermarkets use in the first case.

In France there is much more loyalty to French products, although I do see that changing now - perhaps not with potatoes but certainly with onions which are currently out of season and in my local supermarket come from New Zealand.

How far or how much that will change I do not know. In the past our supermarket tended to sell what was in season only (with the possible exception of onions) but now I see extended seasons with Moroccan strawberries in March, Spanish peaches in May, Italian cherries in May - and we live in a fruit growing region.

[vivienz]

I always buy British potatoes and, in the main, British onions although I do have a soft spot for a cheese and onion tart made with those enormous onions (can we still call them Spanish onions?).  I also buy most of my fruit and veg at a greengrocer's stall in the market, so I don't think that this particular price difference is attributable to the large supermarkets.  Granted, out of season onions do need to come from further afield, but I've noticed the differential all year round.

I usually buy shallots rather than onions in a French shop as these are much better value than onions.

Idun - I saw new potatoes with skins on  (they looked an awful lot like Jersey royals/international kidney spuds) in the small local market near our place in Brittany.  Outrageously expensive, mind, but they were there. Sunday's potatoes were Cornish new potatoes - just lightly scrubbed of their skins.  Larger than new, new spuds but still with that lovely waxy texture.

[idun]

 I usually buy my veg from a veg shop in England. Or the market.

Obviously I do understand why prices in France can be dearer, and I suppose I was used to the prices when I lived there, but these days, they feel harsh.

[andyh4]

Vivienz wrote:

I also buy most of my fruit and veg at a greengrocer's stall in the market, so I don't think that this particular price difference is attributable to the large supermarkets.

unquote

All sellers of fruit and veg in the UK are impacted by supermarket prices. The greengrocer or market stall holder can probably charge a small premium over the supermarket, but if that premium becomes too great most buyers will just walk away and drive to Tesco or whoever. By and large there is just one single market and that includes the stall holder as well as the Supermarket. It is only when the stall holder can offer something that the supermarket cannot that there is any real market differentiation - and onions and potatoes are unlikely to provide that differentiation. (Although they might if they provide Jersey Royals in competition with unnamed variety Egyptian "new" potatoes.

[Hoddy]

I've always added sprigs of mint to new potatoes at the start of cooking. I thought it was an English tradition and that everyone did it.

[idun]

I thought it was a tradition too Hoddy.

Also I add a sprig to fresh garden peas.

[Loiseau]

+1 to both those, idun.

I splashed out on "Noirmoutier potatoes" yesterday for my guests, and they were delicious. Though I did have to pick carefully through the bag to find the smaller ones.

Angela

[Patf]

I always buy what I call "pink pots" - they're good enough for us. No idea how much they are and where they come from though, we don't eat a lot.

 I usually cook them cut in quarters in  a hot oven with some olive oil and a little salt. They're quite sweet.

Plain boiled they're good for potato salad too.

[Cendrillon]

This time of year new crop Noirmoutier and Ile de Re potatoes are on offer in Charente Maritime.

[YCCMB]

I always wondered whether I'd have to get a mortgage for some onions until Lidl opened. Now I think they're reasonable. As for spuds, if I want small ones I buy Ratte potatoes in Framce, but otherwise it's a perk living next door to a farmer who grows hundreds of tonnes of them. Charlotte, mostly. Which I love. Although we eat few potatoes compared to a lot of people.

[vivienz]

All this talk of onions and spuds had an influence - I've just returned from getting my weekly shopping at Aldi and I felt compelled to buy 4 lovely looking Spanish onions.  They're called large mild onions but they do, indeed, come from Spain.  Onion tart for us tomorrow night!  I should add that it was 69p for 4, making for an excellent value dinner.

[mint]

Earlier in the year, Aldi had some sweet white onions which are similar to my favourite onions from the Cevennes.  One layer of paper-like thin skin and no waste.  They were from Mexico and I had to ignore any prickings of conscience about food miles.

Of course, the Cevennes onions are very expensive so I think of them as fruit and I'd roast them and eat them as an item in their own right.  So, no more expensive than, say, fennel bulbs.

For soups and stews, I get the usual oignons jaunes.  They have thick, tough outer layers but OK for slow cooking.

Sometimes Lidl also have those lovely pink onions from Roscoff at a reasonable price and they are good cooked or raw.

Potatoes, yes, you have to learn to not look at the price label! 

Alternatively, if you like sweet potatoes, they are about the same price and keep for weeks in a cool place without sprouting and without going soft.  Nice roasted with some chopped red chillies and herbs.  A generous sprinkling of mixed seeds and nuts to provide protein and, as far as I am concerned, a tasty and well-balanced meal.

It's the price of meat that horrifies me the most.  Fortunately, OH doesn't eat any meat so it's not too bad buying just for myself and the dog!

[Pierre ZFP]

In Pas de Calais, potatoes are cheap as chips [:P]

[Chancer]

I havn't eaten any potatoes for 5 years since I started my new life, I buy sweet potatoes but they do cost more, between €2.29 and €2.99 per kg.

 

There is an Algeco plonked in the car park of the dosshouse just along my terrace, looks like tens of thousands of Euros have been spent converting it into un distributeur des patates [:D] the poor farmer hasn't sold any yet and at €15 per kg he aint likely to any time soon but he has been strapped up with a 20 year lease finance deal on the machine and as soon as the propriétaire gets fed up and throws it off his parking then he will be strapped up with storage fees as well.

 

The agriculteur asked me if i would rent a space in my car park to him [blink] not quite the ambience that I wanted to portray.

 

He has been royally screwed yet the idea of an automatic machine is a great idea in an area where people dont want to work the hours people want to buy/consume and where the accueil from a computer is far more welcoming than being scowled at and told "nous fermons!" [:(] there is a distributeu de pizzas artisanales (a machine is artisanale?????) and it is far and away the most frequented restauration in town my clients alone fill one whole wheely bin a week with pizza boxes.   

[idun]

15€ a kilo, well a 15 kgs or even 10kgs sack would be the better chance of a sale. Poor bloke.

[suein56]

[quote user="Chancer"]

There is a distributeur de pizzas artisanales (a machine is artisanale?????) and it is far and away the most frequented restauration in town my clients alone fill one whole wheely bin a week with pizza boxes.   

[/quote]

Having read what you have said previously ref the lack of restos around you I don't find this surprising.

Your poor clients arrive at your place hungry so they do need to eat.

Perhaps you could add a carefully worded addendum to your website insert ref the lack of somewhere decent to eat in the locality. That should rile up the Tourist Office even more than they are now.[:)]

Sue

[Chancer]

If it were not for a small number of immigrants anyone visiting this area not having the genetically programmed belly time clock of a brainwashed and conditioned French person would starve to death

There is an Arab that operates a 7-11 type grocers shop which is the only place open on Sundays, Mondays or between 12 and 2 and there is a Chinese woman with a small all you can eat buffet that is the only place to eat on a Sunday, or after 14.00 any afternoon or after 20.00 any night. both real hard workers and all they recieve for their engagement is jealousy and racial insults. I have exaggerated a bit about the opening hours as I shop al 13.00 when there is no-one around.

Even the Macdonalds does not open for breakfast until 11.30 or it may even be 12.00 and they dont sell anything resembling a breakfast. The Flunch closes and locks its shutters an hour before the end of service.

I went with a French ala to Brico-depot Arras at sparrow fart one morning to help him score an arrivage and to load his van, he said he would buy me breakfast, there is a Macdo next door, didnt open till 10.30 and this is in a Grand ville where the prefecture is, we drove back and could not find anywhere along the way even in our town at 10 am, not even the Macdo for another couple of hours, we found a boulangerie that would make us a coffee to go with the croissants. and who had a table and chairs.

It really scares me when people arrive here at a completely reasonable hour or during the day on Sunday and ask "can you recommend a good restaurant?" the truthfull answer is no and that even the bad ones are closed, ditto for "never mind, its a self catering apartment, where can we buy some food?"

Someone some day will have low blood sugar and will turn on me.

[mint]

Come, Chance, you protest too much.

Frankly, what I think is that most of us tend to eat too much, if anything.  Unless a person is diabetic, I don't think a state of having low blood sugar is a common thing at all.

If we didn't eat for half a day or even a whole 24 hours or 36 hours, we would certainly feel some discomfort but no great harm will come to us.

We who have the great good fortune of living in the developed and prosperous west do not know what real hunger is.  We do not need to be fed on demand.........