Fewer and fewer registered in the AMAP of Mayenne. This is the general observation of most associations for the maintenance of peasant agriculture. An astonishing drop because the health crisis has nevertheless raised awareness of the need to buy locally. “Over the past five years, we had a perpetual waiting list, with people who could not have access to vegetable baskets because the market gardeners were at saturation point.“explains Catherine Renou, founder of the AMAP Les Ress de la Semaines, Pommeraies district in Laval. Today this famous waiting list has disappeared.
General inflation
According to Amélie Derouault, co-president of AMAP de la Bouche aux Oreilles in Mayenne, the drop is partly due to the increase in the price of fruit and vegetables. She experienced it the market gardener who supplies it. “He legitimately impacted the increase in the price of his seeds and his entrepreneurial charges on the price of his products” she expands. The price of a basket of vegetables in Amélie Derouault’s AMAP has therefore gone from 12 to 15€. She specifies all the same that the basket is a little more filled in spite of everything.
In any case, this drop in the number of members does not worry Catherine Renou too much either. The AMAP model in France is a virtuous model with a bright future. “If we want to keep a dynamic fabric in Mayenne, we really have to consume via this kind of circuit. It helps maintain trusses“ argues the Lavalloise.
Same in horticulture
In Mayenne, professionals in horticulture, another market gardening sector, have also increased their products by a few cents. Florian Kowal, works at JardiFlore in Évron and was also forced to increase the price of his products because the cost of inputs has also increased. “Inputs are what we buy from outside and what we cannot produce ourselves. I make plants in pots, so I need small pots for example” he explains.