Can you tell us a bit about yourself: who are you, where do you come from, what do you do?

My name is Guy Deberdt, and I am the chairman of the association Biopartenaire, which manages the label of the same name, and which is a leader in the French specialist organic store sector: a universal fairtrade label, whether for products sourced internationally or produced by French supply chains.

I got involved in the organic sector when I was very small, since my father was an active organic campaigner in the 1980s in the Vaucluse department where, among other roles, he was one of the founders of the Carpentras Biocoop before founding KAOKA in 1993, which I joined in 2005.

In 2012, my father died suddenly after contracting malaria, and so I naturally took over the management of KAOKA, shortly thereafter becoming a board director of Biopartenaire, following in the footsteps of my father who was one of its founding members in 2002 and was its chairman until 2011.

 

The future is starting to look a little brighter for the organic sector. What does the situation look from your perspective?

In 2012 we took the momentous decision of only awarding our Biopartenaire label to brands dedicated to the specialist organic network, where we are indeed seeing a market upturn.

In today’s political climate in France, where the organic sector is receiving absolutely zero support, I strongly believe that we are capable of maintaining and even growing our fabric of active organic consumers who naturally shop in organic stores.

I think that specialist organic shops are the network that is the most capable of driving organic development as we conceive it, i.e. organic that cannot be dissociated from fairtrade. We should always bear in mind that the specialist network was a precursor for organic, and that it has always kept a step ahead in raising consumer awareness to environmental and social issues and to the quality of organic products.  

These issues are of extreme importance in the current climate and geopolitical context. To curb global warming, preserve biodiversity and guarantee the long-term viability of our supply chains, it is more important than ever to combine organic with fairtrade.

 

What are BIOPARTENAIRE’s projects to support the sector?

We are convinced that the organic sector can only be supported by building strong connections and partnerships between farmers, processors and organic shops. To do so, we have stepped up our actions towards retail in particular though our Biopartenaire ambassador shop programme.

Today, the bio-partnerships set up by Biopartenaire members are genuine differentiators for organic shops, especially in view of the increasingly complex challenges of controlling the sourcing of organic raw materials amid a world order in upheaval. Shops are the last link in the chain to pass on to consumers the values that we all share. It is our job to give them what they need, so that the specialist network can defend the fundamentals of a committed and meaningful organic sector!

We are also working on agricultural risks by organising a thought process involving all Biopartenaire members where everyone can share their solutions so as to mitigate these risks and consider how to share them out along the supply chain.

Finally, we believe in the development of fairtrade in collective catering, in particular to raise awareness among the younger members of society. We have therefore designed a new version of our FIABLE guidelines to certify organic platforms working with collective catering so that we can recognise all the socially responsible farmers working together to sell directly to collective catering. AGRICOURT is thus the first fairtrade certified platform.

 

What are you expecting from the next edition of Natexpo in 2025?

We have to move forward, without deluding ourselves, showcase innovations, and highlight all the benefits that organic has to offer our own health and that of the planet.

In the crisis that we are going through with the total disengagement by the political class from organic, we have to show that we are a big, close-knit family and we will fight to the end to bequeath a viable organic model to future generations; our future and that of our planet depend on it.

 

What’s your everyday organic reflex?

Eating and drinking as much organic produce as possible! As an organic advocate and campaigner, it would be impossible to do otherwise!