Organic and local vegetables from Grelinettes & Cie supply local canteens

La production se fait sur 1,5 ha d’un terrain mis à disposition par la Ville sur le domaine de Campeyroux. DR

Le pôle production alimentaire de l’Abeille Verte répond à une demande du territoire, alliant qualité et quantité en mode ultracourt.

Producing organic products in quantity, locally for ultra-short supply chains, this is the challenge that Grelinettes & Cie, the food production center of Abeille Verte, set itself two years ago. During their visit to Lodève at the end of last year, the prefect François-Xavier Lauch and then the president of the departmental council Kléber Mesquida met employees and managers of the employment-oriented company, resulting from the experiment Territory zero long-term unemployed.

200% Deposit Bonus up to €3,000 180% First Deposit Bonus up to $20,000

The opportunity to discover the activities in place in two large Reuse/recycling and Well-being centers in Lodève with its local services, but also those created around the operation of a market gardening site set up on part of the municipal estate of Campeyroux.

Produce, transform and sell on site

“We occupy land made available by the City on which we currently cultivate one and a half hectares focused on productivity, with a high yield, worked mainly by hand. We have two greenhouses and we are finishing a third one”, details Jean-François Cavalier, the director of this food production center. “We have been producing all vegetables for a year, except potatoes due to lack of sufficient surface area.” With prospects of developing on an additional hectare. “We have attached a processing and canning workshop to it, set up in the center of Lodève to produce, process and sell on site in an ultra-short circuit.”

The sale, which started a year ago, is only made to collective catering canteens that have difficulty finding organic and local vegetables in sufficient quantities, at wholesale prices.

“As we are a company that receives job aid, we must not compete with market gardeners already established in the area”, adds Jean-François Cavalier, who heads a team of 14 people in the market gardening section and three in the cannery, who have part-time jobs.

This is how Grelinettes & Cie supplies the Vallot high school, the gendarmerie mess, the Lerab Ling Buddhist center or the Ehpad l’Ecureuil in Lodève and La Rouvière in Soubès whose cooks are delighted with such an opportunity. “We also supply the Secours populaire and the Croix Rouge Insertion.”

The food center also has an arboriculture component with the planting of fruit trees and the revival of abandoned orchards thanks to the establishment of agreements with the owners. Info and contact: 07 67 75 82 96 and grelinettes@labeilleverte.net I subscribe to read the rest