Immersion with market gardeners from Nantes

Aquavitex went to Prim’Val to meet the market gardeners of the Nantes region, new users of our self-tightening aprons.

Splash… as soon as we arrived, the mud stuck to our feet. It has been raining almost every day for two months in the region. We enter a large shed where we are greeted by Bertrand, one of the three managers of Prim’Val.

The particular smell of leeks seizes our nostrils. The line is running and a dozen employees have been peeling leeks since 7am this morning. Bertrand lets us go and meet them to take some pictures.

They have all been equipped with our self-tightening aprons for a week now. Daniel, an employee at Prim’Val, testifies:

“They [les tabliers] are practical and don’t pull on the neck.”

Between mid-May and the end of October, this is the leek season. Every day a team of about ten people takes care of the leeks, from harvesting to crating.

Leek fields, Prim’Val (Bois Viaud) – La Chapelle Basse Mer, France

It is a complete factory that works just-in-time. The harvest is usually done in the morning using a machine called the “leek harvester”. The leeks are harvested in rolls, which are then brought to the beginning of the line. The rollers gradually unroll the leeks, which one person spreads out flat on the line.

The beginning of the line. The leeks arrive directly from the fields a few metres away.

6 people then peel the first layer of the leeks and finally two more will pack the peeled leeks into crates.

Market gardeners work up to 8 hours a day on the line and our self-tightening aprons limit the strain on the neck and resist tearing. A market gardener like Prim’Val can produce up to 15 tons of leeks per day. They are sent to a logistics platform in the region which then delivers to retailers in France and Europe.

Prim’Val market gardeners working on the leek line with Aquavitex aprons.

Thanks to the market gardeners of Prim’Val for their welcoming!