Fraud in Markets-Lezignan Corbieres

Well we had the fraud squad in the market in Lezignan Corbieres last week. Trading standards officers are I suppose the UK equivalent. In my ten years of doing the Lezignan Corbieres market I have only seen them three times, mind you they never bother me, I always have my EcoCert organic certification on display, and the plants we sell are clearly our own production; However it was interesting to see who they did target and the issues they were concentrating on.

Markets of any description; from vegetables to the London Stock Exchange have always seen people trying to sell one thing by describing it as something else; usually something more expensive and finding all sorts of ingenious ways  dress it up and hide it’s real origins. revenue in markets is a simple calculation, the quantity of units you shift multiplied by the size of your margin minus the costs you incur. the higher the margins the more chance you have of making more money.

In markets there are a few factors that affect consumer behaviour, for the less well off and the thrifty price is a big factor. Lezignan Corbieres market have a number of stands; mainly run by French Arabic lads that specialise in picking up on the edge fruit and veg from the Perpignan St Charles market; which they sell at incredibly low prices. There is nothing wrong with the produce if you like industrially produced fruit and veg, produced in Spain Portugal and the other side of the Med.. I have noticed that the different communities tend to support their own; so French Algerians will tend to but from fellow French Algerians; Moroccans from Moroccans first and then see what gaps they can fill out by buying from other stands.

The second factor is local production, a sizable section of consumers like to buy either directly from local producers or from re sellers of local produce. I think there are a number of reasons for this, firstly it is a distinct pleasure to buy from a producers that knows his or her produce very well, the second is to support the local economy. I am not totally convinced that the Government buy French campaigns are that decisive, Brittany is a long way from the Languedoc, but people are still attracted to the AOC (Appellation d’origine controlee) of say French cheeses. There is also a strong feeling that “foreign” rules, read Spanish, on the use of chemicals are not so strict as French ones. It is little use pointing out that most of the rules are set in Brussels not by nation states. “The Spanish cheat don’t you know”, nor that ever since the proposed ban on certain pesticides in France the overall use of pesticides and chemical inputs in agriculture have actually gone up. Logic never gets in the way of a good bit of old fashioned xenophobia.

The third factor is smaller; that is the organic label. While the French organic market continues to grow, well until COVID 19 that is, it still represents a small minority of consumers with a 5% share of the overall food market, and that is dominated by the big supermarket chains. But those that are committed to organic are prepared to pay a premium price for organic produce.

Watching the stand holders the Fraud were targeting and what the stands looked like before and after the inspection was illuminating.

On the whole they left the cheap resellers alone, these guys make their money out of selling in quantity, everything is packed in the bags and boxes they bought them in. The signs they put on them simply say the price per kilo; or piece, the country of origin and what category they are, from one to three depending on their size and quality- the latter just copied from the producer’s ticket on the side of the boxes.

The first set of stand holders the fraud guys did target where the mid market re sellers. They first looked at the produce not in it’s original producers box, who’s “origins” were hand written on signs. It is a simple thing to dump a load of carrots into an unmarked box and then say what ever you want about where they came from. They wanted to see the original tickets for each produce and whether they conformed to the self made signs. Price didn’t seem to concern them, if someone was silly enough to pay double for a product that didn’t seem to be their problem, they were concerned about fraudulently presenting products not daft clients. A lot of signs were hastily taken down and produce that had come from Coursan or the Aude suddenly seemed to remember it had passed through Spain or cross the Med to get to Lezignan Corbieres.

Next target for the fraud squad was the organic produce, a stand holder that prominently displays a huge AB (Agriculture Biologique) was grilled for an hour, to the satisfaction of my neighbour whole buys his vegetables from the same supplier but who resells them at half the price. Needless to say he does not pass them off as organic. All he organic signs were removed; most of her product signs as well.  Organic market sellers need more than the certificates from the original producers, which they never actually display; they themselves need to be certified by one of the organic certifiers and they need to display the certificate on their stands. If they don’t then the simple solution is just don’t buy from them unless you know them and trust them.

Last but not least was the egg sellers. Eggs have to be individually stamped. The first number 0-3 indicates their method of production; 0 is organic, 3 is from caged hens. Then should be the two, letters of the country of origin, then the number of the Department, so an organic egg from the Aude should be clearly marked 0 FR 11. A series of consumer documentaries on the Television over the last few years have sensitised the public to this and it is a brave stand holder that tries to pull a fast one- but amazingly they still do it.

It always amazes me the lack of control in markets, the local police are responsible for ensuring order in the markets, the Town Hall to ensure the sellers are legal and have assurance, the organic certifiers control the behaviour of their organic clients in respect to organic rules. The only people with the power to enforce basic consumer protection are the Fraud Squad based out of Montpellier and they areas rare as hen’s teeth.

This week the market was back to usual; the produce in un-market boxes abounded; organic signs back in place. It was as if the fraud guys had never been. But still the warnings had been issued and the tickets written.

caveat emptor