Can you introduce us to Esprit Fermes?
Esprit Fermes is a digital platform for selling products directly from the farm. It is a “digitized” cooperative that brings together more and more independent producers, who practice direct sales at the farm or at markets and fairs, and very little online sales. Our goal is to bring together on our platform all the richness of our culinary heritage by offering the best products from all regions. We want to offer products that are innovative and ecologically responsible not only to individuals but also to professionals, especially in the restaurant industry, which also suffers from the phenomenon of “junk food”. The advantage for producers is that we offer them a turnkey digital and e-commerce solution, from the selection of their products to their distribution, including their promotion. Moreover, each "agro-entrepreneur" and its products are presented on our site. It is not a “catalogue” but an online “gourmet hall” that we want to recreate on our platform.
What can be found in these online halls?
We are not a delicatessen that only offers luxury products! Ham, pasta, truffles, cheeses, oils… We try to target all audiences and all times of the day from breakfast, to dinner, to coffee.
Our long-term objective is to cover all appellations such as AOC, AOP, IGP… while leaving room for the creativity of our producers. This does not prevent us from referencing non-labelled products, "organic" or not for that matter. We are gradually opening up to other categories of products such as “made in farm” cosmetics, certain crafts, accommodation on the farm that our producers are offering more and more often. Similarly, products from other European and Mediterranean regions responding to the same fair trade logic will soon be offered.
How do you work with “agro-entrepreneurs”?
Today we work with producers spread throughout France. We very often go to meet them to select with them the products they wish to highlight. As for the sale price, it is the “member” producers, subscribers to the services of the platform who set it. In this sense, we are close to fair trade. For producers who are not yet members, we make sure to sell at the same prices as them, so as not to induce competition with our own partners.
Who are the producers you work with?
All our producers are independent, “agro-entrepreneurs”, who work on small production units, often family farms, specialized or in polyculture. They are all concerned about their land and the well-being of their animals to which they are very attached. The animals of our breeders are all raised in the open air, often fed with what they grow themselves; they are thus part of a circular economy mode. They are people in love with their work who use agricultural practices between the tradition of their grandparents and the innovation offered by new technologies because they are aware that they are actors in the ecological transition.
Among them, there are many young people, but all practice a reasoned and sustainable agriculture, far from the large industrialized production units.
You recently opened a grocery store and a restaurant in the inner suburbs of Paris, can you tell us more?
At the beginning of April we opened a restaurant adjoining the grocery store that we had opened at the beginning of January in Gentilly. We are also very motivated by urban development projects such as Greater Paris and try to be part of this approach to get out of the hyper center. With our home delivery service, this is not a problem. To come back to Esprit Fermes “L’Expérience” (Editor’s note:the name of the concept store), we offer a selection of products from our producers, of course, and we regularly organize meeting events with those passing through Paris. As for the restaurant, we work with the products of our producers to demonstrate that local products are not just about fat and old-fashioned dishes. Our Chef, Armance Vilain, is a young graduate of the Ferrandi school; for example, it regularly offers recipes that can be 100% plant-based, good and balanced, completely fresh and homemade, which can also be found on video on our social networks. But, being from Haute-Savoie, we also like to prepare local dishes, such as a beautiful reblochonnade (with real farm Reblochon) accompanied by raw ham!
We too are part of a circular economy mode modeled on the operation of a farm:from the sale of the fresh raw product, to its preparation in the kitchen... so that nothing is lost and everything is eaten!
