The Rungis wholesale market has solid credentials to merit the claim of being the world largest food market, with 18 million consumers within its reach. It has access to transport by road, rail and air with over 1.4 million tons of food delivered to the physical market in 2013, and over 1,000 companies working in the market, employing 11,770 people.
In November 2013 a new building in the zone F5C, dedicated to gastronomy, was inaugurated as part of a more long term plan for a new gastronomic zone to be opened in 2019 under the name Cité de la Gastronomie. The new gastronomy hall is dedicated to serving the food service industry with high quality supplies.
Within the same geographical sector as the future Cité de la gastronomie, a new hall dedicated to Organic food has recently been announced for completion in 2015. This is a strong recognition of the importance of the organic food market in France which has been in constant rise over recent years and looks set to continue, as described in an earlier Food Alert. The new hall will allow organic food to be traded in an exclusive centralised area, as opposed to being spread out over different sectors in the wholesale market. The building will therefore include all product categories. A surface of 5,648m² is dedicated to the new hall which will include 16 trading units and an organic restaurant. The cost of the new organic hall is estimated at €6M, and the building will conform to the High Quality Environmental standard.
The new gastronomy building, the organic hall in construction, and the future Cité de la gastronomie are witness to the changing face of the food trade industry, where quality, service and the convenience of finding more, within a more concentrated space, are increasingly important. The new zone regrouping of these buildings will lead to a renovation of it’s current façade, or to quote Stéphane Layani, the chairman of Rungis, the project will be accompanied by a “strong architectural gesture.” It is therefore also witness to a fusion trend for food, ecology, culture and art.
For more information contact Finnian.oluasa@bordbia.ie
Source: BordBia – The Rungis Market Looks to the Future with Organic
