The Origine Cévennes cooperative brings together around 60 producers who grow sweet onions in an extremely fragmented AOP territory.
“Above all, don’t oppose organic to conventional!” In the Cévennes, everything is not smooth in onion cultivation and it is easy to start – without meaning to – quarrels that are likely to smolder from one massif to another! The Origine Cévennes cooperative, based in Saint-André-de-Majencoules, was created in 1991. Its objective was to organize the sector, from A to Z, and to allow producers to make a decent living from their work. Twenty-five years later, this is still the stated objective and, if weather and health conditions do not disrupt cultivation, sweet onions remain a profitable and attractive production. “The AOP covers a territory of 32 municipalities”explains Philippe Boisson, current president of the cooperative. “From a former family production, we have achieved an organized structure, with 17 employees during the season. Today, it brings together around sixty farmers, but if we talk on the surface, it is only 35 hectares for a volume approaching 2,000 tonnes. We had gone up to 45 hectares but we suffered the terrible floods of 2020, then episodes of drought and some became discouraged. Nevertheless, it is a fairly young population, at 50 years old, I am the oldest on the board of directors. In the world of agricultural cooperation, this is rare enough to be highlighted.
Labor, access to water: constraints
The plot is extremely fragmented since there are 2,500 plots of land: “You might think it’s gardening! But our sector is autonomous and remunerative despite crazy constraints…” Philippe Boisson of course mentions the cost of manual labor, the sweet onion is fragile and does not tolerate mechanization well, but also water. Because in the country of Cévennes episodes and runoff at high speed, farmers are making requests for small reservoirs close to the plots and not impacting the waterways. “If we want people to stay in this territory, clinging to our mountains, this sector must live! It’s a sure value. Because when onions are doing well, crafts and commerce are also doing well.”
The economic development of the territory was indeed the motivation of the founders of the cooperative, 25 years ago. Nicolas Escand, who slammed the door, is one of them: “À l’époque, remembers the operator of Mandagout, we wanted producers to come together to control distribution and therefore remuneration, organize the sector, obtain the AOP, in our deprived region, this was no small thing. I wanted to fight against decline! Today, despite the difficulties specific to setting up in agriculture, I would say that our land has regained a certain value.”
Having switched to organic farming six years ago, when his wife continued part of the joint operation conventionally, Nicolas Escand remains lucid about organic farming. “It’s more complicated, you have to plant in optimal conditions, because if a disease occurs you will not have a solution. So we are attentive to everything: no more humid valley floors, but rather on hillsides and, as organic farming requires, alternating crops. I have diversified with zucchini, potatoes, chestnuts… Organic sweet onion is sold more expensive, but what I like is going back to what the old people did, even if it’s riskier.” Weeding by hand, despite plastic or perforated canvas mulch, is more expensive than using, even wisely, herbicides. It is also one of the obstacles to switching to organic which, as a result, is designed on smaller surfaces. “The cooperative would not survive”assures Philippe Boisson who, moreover, grows organic apples. With a recent and necessary adaptation to climate change: to the Vigan pippin sensitive to high heat, Cévennes arborists have added new, more resistant varieties. Here again, a question of economic survival.
