Carrefour signs agreement for new Carrefour Quality Line in Rhône-Alpes-Auvergne: spelt flour

Carrefour has renewed its commitment to become the world leader in the food transition for everyone by signing an agreement on a new Carrefour Quality Line for spelt flour in Rhône Alpes Auvergne with two regional stakeholders: the Degrange mill and the Dauphinoise cooperative.

This partnership will enable the brand to offer new bread products made entirely from spelt flour with nutritional qualities that reflect consumer demand.

As part of its new food transition approach, Carrefour is keen to promote more responsible production and consumption practices , of which the new spelt line is a concrete example.

In terms of upstream production, the aim is to promote, through its Carrefour Quality Lines, more environmentally friendly farming methods - spelt is a cereal with low input requirements and less vulnerable to disease - and to guarantee producers a better distribution of value.

For the consumer, spelt is a traditional cereal known for its low gluten content and nutritional properties.

A 100% French spelt line

This new partnership agreement covers each link in the production chain:

- The Dauphinoise cooperative of 40 farmers from the Rhône, Isère and Savoie regions, which is committed to this approach. Two hundred hectares of spelt were sown in Autumn 2017 for an initial harvest this summer;

- The Degrange mill which, as a result of this partnership, has bought equipment required to transform spelt into flour (optical sorting and husking of spelt grains);

- and finally Carrefour, the retailer

Long-term commitment to volumes

This three-year agreement concerns 1,000 tonnes of cereals and aims to double volumes and cultivated surface areas within three years. Carrefour is also committed to a price that takes into account actual production costs. The banner's commitment gives visibility to producers and allows partners to invest in their production tool in order to manage the supply chain as a whole.

This new partnership will enable the banner to offer, from January 2019, in all of its hypermarkets and some of its supermarkets, baguettes and bread by weight made from 100% French spelt flour.