Carrefour is committed to urban agriculture and is continuing to open urban gardens located near its stores. In Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois, the famous “first hypermarket in France”, which opened in 1963, is breaking new ground by hosting the first vertical garden cultivated using the aeroponics process.
Designed and managed by Agripolis, a Paris region-based start-up company involved in growing fruit and vegetables without synthetic pesticides and then marketing them via short distribution channels, the 300 square meters garden is in the car park next to the Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois Carrefour hypermarket. The products then go on sale to customers in the store’s fruit and vegetable section straight after being harvested. The innovation lies in the way in which the gardens are grown in columns. The plants themselves are fed using nutrients that are allowed in organic farming. The fact that they are grown outside of the ground and arranged in a particular way protects them against disease and attacks from pests.
A new milestone in developing urban agriculture
In April 2017, Carrefour opened the first garden on the roof of the Villiersen-Bière hypermarket car park (in the Paris region), in partnership with the Bougainville de Brie-Comte-Robert farming college. Fruit, vegetables and seasonal aromatic herbs grown in trays of earth in accordance with agro-ecological methods are then sold over the store’s 1200 square meters of sales area. Another garden managed by Agripolis will soon be opened. Located on the roof of the Carrefour France head office in Massy (in the Paris region), its produce will be sold in the Market store which is scheduled to open opposite the head office in September 2017. In Mérignac (south-west France), another type of urban garden project is being created over a 6000 square meters area near the Carrefour store. Each of these projects involves the expertise of local producers and stakeholders.
Better food quality
This initiative to develop urban agriculture is in line with Carrefour’s policy to improve food quality and is part of its commitment to preserve the planet’s biodiversity. By developing short-distribution channels for its products – 60,000 local products are already on sale in its stores – Carrefour is helping to reduce CO2 emissions and tackle food wastage.
