Local producers from the Minett UNESCO Biosphere and the adjacent municipalities of the interurban green belt, which borders Luxembourg’s only biosphere reserve to the north, accepted the invitation of the PRO-SUD syndicate on Friday, December 9, to participate in a prospecting trip to Lorraine.

The aim of the trip was to show local farmers and food producers, three producer stores in the border area. The producers from Luxembourg’s south are thinking about creating a first producer store on the territory of the Minett UNESCO Biosphere. The syndicate PRO-SUD and the municipal administration of Käerjeng actively support the local producers actively in the realization of this idea.

First stop in Longeville-lès-Saint-Avold

After leaving Luxembourg, the first stop was Longeville-lès-Saint-Avold in the French department of Moselle. The “Champ’être” producers’ store, which opened its doors in December 2018, was visited here.

An association of eight producers allows almost 80 different producers from all over the department to sell their products in a joint store and reach customers that are interested in buying local goods.

For an hour, the producers who came got an explanation of the concept, the creation of the company and the setting up of the store, as well as its daily functioning. All their questions were answered before they were taken on a guided tour of the butchery and the shop’s warehouses.

 

Second stop Ay-sur-Moselle

The village of Ay-sur-Moselle with its 1500 inhabitants, was the second stop for the producer delegation. The shop “L’Ayotte“, having already 8 years of experience was visited. The experience, that the operators of one of the oldest producer shops in the Moselle department have gathered, was shared with their Luxembourgish colleagues.

 

Basse-Ham to end the day

From Ay-sur-Moselle, the delegation of producers from the Minett UNESCO Biosphere and the neighbouring municipalities started their journey back to Luxembourg. On the way back, however, one last visit to a producer’s shop was on the agenda. The last of the three stops of the day was the shop “Komm à la ferme” in Basse-Ham near Thionville.

Unlike the two structures visited before, “Komm à la ferme” is a family-run shop that has opened in an activity zone in addition to their farm shop. The shop was opened after a producer’s shop, which was started as a drive-in with other partners by the family in 2014, had to be closed due to lack of profitability.

3 shops – 3 different concepts

The aim of the prospection in the Lorraine border area was to show producers ways to create a successful producer shop in the Minett UNESCO Biosphere area.

Supporting local producers will remain an area of work for the PRO-SUD syndicate in 2023. This is done in the optics of creating structures with which food production in the south of Luxembourg can gain importance in the coming years.