ISHS Acta Horticulturae 306: International Symposium on Medicinal and Aromatic Plants, XXIII IHC
TRENDS OF THE MEDICINAL AND AROMATIC PLANT SECTOR IN FRANCE |
| Author: | N. Verlet |
| Abstract:
At the beginning of the twentieth century, there was a widespread harvesting of herbs in many regions of France. This period is also the apogee of the French perfume industry. A firm like "Chiris" in Grasse has introduced numerous cultivations throughout the world. Even now joint ventures set up by French firms have improved the quality in many producing countries. Since the nineteenth thirties, the cultivation of herbs declined substantially because of the advances in synthetic chemistry and the intensification of the agricultural sector. The situation has changed in the seventies. The demand for more natural products has brought herbs back both into mainstream medicine and as ingredients in industrial production. The consumption of herbs has risen in France from 10 000 tons in 1970 to 32 000 tons in 1989. Meanwhile, during this period, the agricultural sector has faced many problems: oveproduction of milk, fall in the price of cereals and meat. From high level of specialization, the trend is now towards increased diversification in agricultural production. Herbs have been received a lot of positive attention-probably too much according to the real potentialities of this sector for our agriculture. The growth of the consumption is now covered by the increasing domestic production. The development of the herb production has presently to face the internatinal competition which is getting stronger and stronger for ten years. The price of the imports is regularly declining (Fig. 1). Before the presentation of the French herb production, it is useful to have an overview of the situation in Europe (Table 1.). Spain is the main producer with 28000 ha, but this estimation includes Capsicum, lavandin and spike lavander 7000 ha and 5000 ha respectively. The estimation of the Italian production (2800 ha) includes cultivation for bergamot oil, important raw material for the perfume industry. If one includes plants for perfume (lavander, lavandin and Salvia sclarea) France is the second with 23000 ha. 4000 ha are cultivated under commercial contracts with major firms such as Sanophi, Pernod-Ricard (Table 2.). Many other species are grown, but often on small scale (Table 3.). Approximately 4000 tons are also harvested from wild plots, mainly Gentian, lichen and ash leaves. These cultivations are competing with imports from different countries, especially Morocco, Albania and India (Table 4.). | |
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