Snow has fallen this week in several French departments, especially in the west, north and east of the country. 33 departments have been placed on alert for cold, snow and ice on Wednesday at 10am.
The night deliveries went well, but we are now more concerned about the trucks that need to go back and load merchandise again. Several trucks are stuck in Brittany and Ile-de-France, which will affect the next deliveries,” explains an exporter from the fruit and vegetable sector.
Indeed, in some places, 20cm of snow has fallen, which inevitably disrupts traffic. According to France Info radio, 312 trucks had to park on Wednesday morning at the 5 storage areas opened in Brittany. Moreover, trucks of over 7.5 tons are not allowed to drive on several roads, like the A81 highway from Le Mans to Rennes. As a preventive measure, the national road 118 in Ile-de-France has been closed since 9pm on Tuesday. Trucks of over 7.5 tons are also not allowed to drive since 8pm in the entire department. The affected drivers have had to go around the area or were sent to temporary storage areas. As a result, 150 trucks were stored on Tuesday evening in the Yvelines, according to France Bleu radio. These preventive measures were taken in order to avoid reliving the scenario from February 2018 when many motorists were stuck for many hours.
In general, supplies were able to reach Rungis in the night of Tuesday to Wednesday, but the consequences on trade are not negligible. “80% of our clients did not come on Wednesday morning to buy at Rungis, so today’s revenue is low,” explains a Rungis wholesaler.
Another operator of the market is also wondering how the situation will evolve in the coming days. “Trade was really slow today. And the situation is likely to continue in the next few days, as the negative temperatures predicted will probably turn the snow into ice, making the roads impassable.”