The Charter “Made in France”

On 28 January, METRO France and ten major federations of the French food sector gathered in the Eiffel Tower to sign jointly the Charter “Made in France”. The Charter provides the framework for pursuing one goal: The better promotion of French agricultural production in independent restaurants across France.

Independent restaurants - in contrast to franchise chains – play a vital role in the French society and the consumers’ approach towards food. The decision to jointly promote French agriculture products reflects a development, in which French produce finds it more and more difficult to compete with globalized food supply chains and follows the objective to raise the awareness of guests in restaurants for origin and quality.

The Charter “Made in France” is unprecedented in France. METRO France is in the lead of this cooperation with food associations, farmer associations, entrepreneur associations as well as associations representing the hospitality sector.* Altogether, they form a strong and concrete commitment towards the promotion of French agricultural products within France’s gastronomy sector.

The dialogue with food producers – from primary producers to food manufacturers – is of strong importance for trade companies. Often, however, considering the many interests of players along the food supply chain, the dialogue is being characterized by complexities and divergences. But this is only one reality – trusted cooperation is the other one. And the Charter „Made in France“ is a powerful example.

At the heart of this Charter, METRO France is positioned as a link between the production and the independent restaurants over three ambitions:

First: Create dynamics of networks and actions between the signatories of the Charter with METRO France as a link.

Second: Across all French territories the Charter envisages four meetings per year of local working groups in our 98 METRO stores to discuss food sector‘s issues for the local representatives of the signatory federations. These discussions will focus e.g. on seasonality, food waste, traceability or animal welfare. The working groups are organized by the local store managers.

Further, across France, the Charter envisages events highlighting French agricultural production among the public with local stakeholders in. The first event will take place on 24 March simultaneously in 98 stores. This “big bang” event will be followed by events on Farms in June, at food providers’ premises in September and finally at restaurants in December.

Third: Increase the share of French products used in independent restaurants. This increase will be evaluated every year based on the implementation of respective KPI’s, which have been agreed among all the signatories.

We are excited to see how this unparalleled cooperation between actors across the food supply chain will unfold its power in restaurant kitchens across France.