The Chinese want to gastronomy and luxury

Yanqing, 80 kilometres northwest of Beijing, fields of corn. The climate is harsh and temperatures can vary from-20 to 30 degrees summer. This is where that Euralis has chosen in 2007 to buy a farm birds intended for the production of foie gras in China under the brand name Rougié. This breeding was the MmeWang. A small piece of woman that nothing predestined to the force-feeding of geese, introduced in China ten years ago by some French bold and distributed after a few months without having been able to develop a market.

Accountant for a dozen years, Ayming Wang has for its part launched the adventure "after seeing an advertisement for foie gras on television". The path has not been easy. It improvises not producer of foie gras, but it has conducted his case from 1996 to 2007, until the meeting with Euralis, for a conducive to the breeding site. MmeWang approached the bargain. She sold his farm to the French cooperative group, but it is the partner of 7. "Rougié was for me the guarantee to develop this activity by introducing technology and know-how", reflects - t - it. Euralis, is a valuable aid in the maze of the local administration.

The conquest of the star-shaped heads

In three years, the small business of MmeWang is completely transformed under the leadership of the new owners. The corn is aligned with the French methods. The ducks, less sensitive to stuff, have replaced the geese. Production increased tenfold to 30 tonnes of foie gras per year, manufactured according to the specifications of Rougié, frozen and marketed in whole lobes, cutlets or dice for the soup. A slaughterhouse to European health standards is out of Earth, and all logistics is put in place, with a total investment of EUR 2 million. The turnover of 730.000 euros is expected to double on FY 2010-2011, with the conquest of the heads of international hotel chains in China. The case is for the first year in the balance.

The 53 employees are all Chinese, with the exception of the Director-General, Jean-Marie Vallier. A thirty-year trained at the Ecole supérieure de commerce of Paris, who made his first steps on the spot in the French distribution and learned Chinese "immersion". Employees, from campaigns where living conditions are more difficult, located on-site. Euralis took the party to pay compensation of 50 greater than the average national to retain them. "The competent staff is difficult to find." "Many go home for Chinese new year and do not return", explains Jean-Marie Vallier. This adds the risk of copy, an art in which the Chinese excellent, to the point that today ' today the largest producer of foie gras is Chinese. It is called San Rougey. "Remember" its partnership with Jean Rougié, came in the 1990s and then left... The number two is also Chinese. Jilin Zhengfang learned the trade in contact with two French expatriates of Val-de-Luce, who have remained in place for two years.

The former Coop de Pau has not least intend to open a second farm and to develop very strongly on the spot. Will "if we don't, others do it." The Chinese want to gastronomy and luxury. "Foie gras is an element", said Pierre Couderc, Director General of Euralis, a connoisseur of Asian markets. In addition, the import of frozen foie gras is prohibited for health reasons that the Chinese authorities will not rise without having previously found a currency of Exchange. "Beijing would much export poultry in Europe", said Benoît Rossignol, Adviser to the foreign trade of the France.