June was "particularly quiet" and even "borderline catastrophic" for some professionals at Rungis. Sales were too slow, maybe due to the gloomy political context and the less than favorable weather.
"Normally, June is a very important month for us, with a lot of summer fruits on the market like strawberries, cherries, stone fruits, watermelons and melons," explains a wholesaler at Rungis. "With this wide range of products, we should be working well, but not this year. We feel that consumer habits have been seriously disrupted. And the poor weather has not encouraged people to eat summer fruit. We have experienced complicated months before, in February and March, but this has never happened in June. The last two weeks have been extremely slow, and the items I am selling the most of at the moment are clementines and oranges. I have rarely seen anything like this."
Some see the Olympics as an opportunity to boost sales, but others remain skeptical. "It is still an unpredictable situation. The increased traffic in Paris might push some to close, while others might hope to make up for the lost time in June and see a recovery in consumption. We do not know at this stage. The influence of the Olympic Games on wholesaler activity will be 'double or quits'."