The origin of the project

Did you know that the Southwest of France represents more than 20% of the French agricultural surface? New-Aquitaine is even ranked at the first place regarding fruit trees, ahead of the Occitanie and Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur regions.

Nut orchards are in full expansion in the region. There are nearly 8300Ha of walnut trees and over 5980Ha of hazelnut trees. Recent plantations of almond trees complete these two flagship products of the Lot-et-Garonne and Dordogne regions. This accelerated development is attributed to the cooperatives carrying out the mission of transformation and marketing. Nevertheless, these structures are facing two major trends:

1. Professional consumers (artisans, chocolate makers, retailers,...) have the willingness to connect with the farmers and skip unnecessary intermediaries. In this way they are sure that producers get paid at a fair price.

2. Farmers have the willingness to get more value out of their products by detaching themselves from the traditional cooperative structures. In search of autonomy, they also equip themselves to transform and market their production independently.

Following these two observations and multiple exchanges with farmers, "Les vergers du Sud-Ouest" is born. A group of passionate orchardists with small scaled farms (25-40Ha/producer) that are willing to provide chocolate makers, pastry chefs, cooks and grocery stores with high-quality dried fruits. If you want to discover our products, have a look in The harvest tab.