Greek products on their way to France

Already this fall, Greek products will take their rightful place on the shelves of French supermarkets and in the E.Leclerc chain, which has the largest market share in France.

A business mission was recently held in Paris with the participation of 14 Greek food and beverage companies. During it, a number of agreements were concluded on the supply of Greek products to restaurant chains and other public catering outlets, and grocery stores. The trip was organized by the Athens Chamber of Commerce and Industry in collaboration with the Our Greece initiative.

The agreement with the E.Leclerc chain, whose market share grew to 23.9% in 2023, provides for the promotion of Greek products in two stages:

• it will first appear on online shelves so that French consumers can get to know it;
• In the second stage, it is planned to create a Greek corner, and gradually products from Greece will be added to the shelves with goods from foreign countries.

Representatives of the French chain emphasized that, in addition to high quality, products must have an attractive price, compatible with the pricing policy applied by the group. It should be noted that the E.Leclerc group is a cooperative and the stores have a semi-autonomous status.

The group generated sales of €43.9 billion in 2022 and has a network of more than 750 stores. A few months ago, E.Leclerc acquired several Louis Delhaize Group stores in Luxembourg.

Greek companies, writes publication ekathimerini, held meetings with representatives of the second largest French chain Carrefour, but no agreements were concluded. This network gives preference to French products, as well as products from neighboring countries, where transport costs are comparatively lower compared to the cost of transport from Greece.

However, during the contacts, an agreement was reached between the Helios pasta industry and the French restaurant chain Gallika à la grecque. The network held meetings with two other companies involved in the business mission – the dairy industry Mandrekas and Geodi, which produces jams, sauces and spreads. The latter even met with representatives of the Darriah Company, which imports/exports food products.

Participants in the mission were: Agrino, Lux, Zymarika Ilios, Evoiki Zymi, Hellenic Eclecta Elaia, Mandrekas, Plomari Distillery Isidoros Arvanitis, Krokos Kozanis, Geodi, Koukakis Farm, Menelaos Fresh, Tsanos, Jannis and MEVGAL. It is worth recalling that Greek exports to France amount to about 1.7 billion euros per year, and the top 20 exported products include cheese, farmed fish, yogurt and peaches.

Source link