Cross-Channel traffic

Rungis has always been a draw for people who are passionate about their food and, while the UK may not be as renowned as France for its love affair with gastronomy, there is still plenty of demand in the market for the unusual, top-class fare on offer at the Parisian hub.

Over the years, a number of UK catering and wholesale businesses have set up their own trading links with Rungis, in a bid to get ever closer to the cornucopia of goods available in the French market.

Oakleaf European

John Piper is the founder and managing director of Oakleaf European, which operates UK offices in Bournemouth and Derbyshire. Fourteen years ago, his firm decided to employ two full-time buyers in an office in Rungis. “I knew of the market and had spent the previous 12 months researching it,” says Piper. “The range and quality of the produce on offer at Rungis was what attracted us to it. Our buyers walk the market every day and see everything before they buy it.”

Oakleaf imports fruits, vegetables, dairy, poultry and other fine foods from Rungis, which accounts for 80 per cent of its supplies. This is supplemented with UK-grown product and imports from overseas. The firm’s two Rungis buyers - one British, one French - deal with 60-70 companies in the foodie hub.

“We bring everything to our UK office and then supply it to the domestic market, as well as exporting to markets such as the Caribbean, the Middle East and the Far East,” says Piper. “We have a real mix of clients, which is healthy and keeps our options open - these include top hotels, Michelin-starred restaurants, catering wholesalers and niche retailers such as Whole Foods Market in London. We export to hotels in the Caribbean and we have top-end chefs and hotels in Dubai buying our produce.”

Oakleaf’s decision to work closely with Rungis was borne from a passion to bring products to the UK that would “wow” its customers, says Piper. “We wanted our produce from France, Spain, Italy or wherever, to be like the produce that the people in those countries eat themselves. Everyone who works for Oakleaf has an almost anorak-like passion for food,” he explains.

When Oakleaf first started walking the halls of Rungis, it was always incredibly busy as the French supermarkets used to buy all their produce there. Today, that is no longer the case - the market has consolidated, says Piper, and the weaker traders have disappeared. But there are no empty stands and if a space does become available, a business always jumps in pretty quickly.

“Rungis has got a very strong future and we have to do our business there,” says Piper. “They are investing money in the market all the time and it is a big part of French culture. It is a market where innovations are constantly being tested and we have always found it a very straightforward place to work.”

Fresh Direct Gourmet

Fresh Direct Gourmet is the top-end gourmet division of national foodservice specialist Fresh Direct. Director of sales Martin Levy explains the firm’s mission. “The idea is to look after our top clientele, offering a bespoke service to our high-end customers,” he says. “We have the means of looking after our customers with the service levels of a small company, but backed by the resources of a larger company.”

Fresh Direct Gourmet manages top-end product through the whole Fresh Direct business, working as both a procurement and a service arm, and four years ago it set up a dedicated operation in Rungis, directly employing two full-time French buyers. “Most of the importers in the UK that work with Rungis bring in produce and then sell it on to caterers, whereas we supply right through to the end of the chain,” explains Levy. “We have very strong connections with the market and we do a lot of work with Charles Davous [the brand ambassador for Rungis in the UK].”

Fresh Direct Gourmet brings in salads, herbs and baby vegetables from Rungis, as well as niche exotic lines. These are then supplied to clients including top chefs and retail outlets such as Harrods Food Hall. “It is very important to have top-end product for clients such as these,” says Levy. “Rungis offers outstanding quality.”

One of Rungis’s key advantages is its ability to supply a wide international client base, with customers in the UK, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Scandinavia, to name a few. “Rungis is feeding the demands of Europe - it has a stronger and more varied client base than domestic markets in the UK, which can be quite insular,” says Levy.

The vast range and quality of the produce available at Rungis is another of its key attributes. “For example, while we get standard Dutch products here in the UK, the better-quality Dutch goods go to Rungis,” says Levy. “Although vegetables are cheaper in France than they are in the UK, it is more expensive to buy fruit in France. It fetches higher premiums and therefore the better-quality fruit goes to Rungis.”

Fresh Direct Gourmet sources most of its French produce directly from growers, but its presence in Rungis is vital for access to new products and as a point of consolidation. “We use Rungis as a point of purchase, but also as a point of consolidation for ordering directly from French growers,” says Levy. “Although we work directly with the growers, we also need the Rungis wholesalers for smaller volumes of exotics or other specialities.”

Fresh Direct Gourmet regularly takes groups of chefs to visit Rungis and wants to continue its close co-operation with the Parisian hub. “Rungis will always be there because of its international client base,” says Levy. “It is suffering much less at the moment than regional markets in France and the UK.

“I have been going back and forth for 20 years. It has changed over the years and has had its fair share of struggles. But it is certainly not shrinking. What it has now is the ability to make money from areas other than just selling - for example, leasing warehousing facilities, infrastructure and transport. Rungis will always survive.”

Burbank Produce Ltd

Burbank Produce Ltd on Bradford Wholesale Market has worked with Rungis for 18 years, and has rented a 24-hour facility on the French market for the last seven years, with five permanent staff. “The site really fulfils a distribution role for us now, as we bring products through France and Europe directly to Rungis, as well as sourcing more delicate or unusual products from the market’s stands,” says commercial manager Jonathan Kershaw.

“We have grown up on the market and seen brands and trends established that we have then brought over to the UK. But we are now sourcing the kind of volume that means we need to go directly to the growers.”

Rungis is a fantastic place, says Kershaw. “I never get bored of going,” he claims. “There is a real passion for food there and they get it right. We like how they defend a product and its price. Burbank has the same ethos - we are renowned for our high-quality produce, although it does come at a price.”

Kershaw has seen plenty of consolidation on Rungis over the years. Burbank runs its own distribution fleet from the market - again a serious investment, says Kershaw, but the firm is committed to working with Rungis 52 weeks of the year. “We believe in French product,” he says. “It is classier, and their techniques and presentation are better. The French value the product correctly and it is a pleasure to work with them.”

Whenever he visits the market, Kershaw says he comes back recharged and full of ideas. “We take our key customers out there and they all come back with the Rungis bug,” he says. “There are brands there that you just don’t see in the UK. Here there is very much an island mentality and people won’t pay over a certain price for a product - in Rungis, they will pay for flavour, taste, appearance and general quality.”

Burbank brings baby leaf salads, wholehead salads, washed potatoes, mini vegetables, wild mushrooms and more unusual root vegetables into the UK from France, as well as charcuterie and cheeses.

“These are high-end, high-value products,” says Kershaw. “We supply quality, luxury items to caterers that in turn supply five-star establishments. We distribute Rungis products all over the UK and into Ireland. It is the freshness that sets us aside - we can offer product just in time; picked one morning and then with our customer that evening. We do it as quick as we can - but it is at great expense and therefore you have got to be good at it.”

Rungis is highly innovative, insists Kershaw. “Wholesalers on Rungis do not sit still and wait for business,” he says. “They have a huge international clientele and there is nothing else like it anywhere in the world. It really is a centre for food. We will always be on Rungis because we need to be. The name just means quality and people associate it with gastronomy.”