The “Comité Interprofessionnel de la Noix de Grenoble” (CING) is the organization responsible for the defence and management of the Noix de Grenoble appellation.
A brief description of the organization and its activities.
The Grenoble walnut is recognized as a protected Designation of Origin since 1938. The operators of the Grenoble walnut (producers and traders) have to respect a bill of specifications including an area of production, varieties, planting density, quality….One important point of the specifications is that the Grenoble walnut is only presented in-shell. There cannot be a “shelled Grenoble Walnut”. The bill of specifications doesnot authorizes it. This criteria has one goal : preserve all the organoleptic qualities of the walnut. The shell is a natural packaging. In order to guarantee the quality, the Grenoble Walnut has a minimum size of 28mm.
The comitee has 650 members producing Grenoble Walnut over more than 6800ha.
Grenoble walnut is famous all over the world, so that even in The USA, its reputation is used: you can buy “Grenoble walnut from California”
What are the main areas of activity of the organization?
The CING is in charge of several missions.
It authorises operators willing to become a member, carries out quality controls and ensures the proper application of the specifications. The CING is also an “interprofession”. That means it brings together producers and marketers to establish a common marketing strategy.
The traders and producers of Grenoble Walnuts guarantee all the advantages of the PDO: product quality, traceability, proximity, respect of the environmental issues.
The comitee is responsible of the promotion of the product. It carries out several actions : social media, TV, creating contents like videos, participating in major professional events. We are present in Fruit Attraction, Fruit Logistica… Our new campaign is aiming to break the rules, like you break the shell. We are currently creating new recipes, family recipes for everyone.
Another interesting mission is the harvest forecasting. Every year, before the harvest, we take walnuts from a sample of plots. The walnuts are graded, counted, and a mathematical model allows us to extrapolate the data over the entire appellation area. Then, the traders can anticipate the commercial season and are able to negociate prices with the distributors.
What’s the news for 2025 about new directions?
We are currently working on the “shelled Grenoble walnut”. The current appellation doesnot authorize it, but we need to adapt to consumer demand. There is new types of consumption like snacking. The in-shell walnut doesnot fit to young consumers, our new target audience.
Also, we are working on changing some criteria of the bill of specifications. We plan to include a variety named “Fernor”. Created 25 years ago by the “Interprofessional Technical centre for Fruit and vegetables”, a French technical institute, it is a crossing with the Franquette, the main variety of the current specifications and lara, a productive variety. The Fernor is well adapted to the area of the appellation and matches with the typical characteristics of Grenoble walnuts.
What can you tell us about market trends?
The market prices have been going up in the last few weeks. About 60% of the walnuts is selled in the European market (Germany, Italy). Our main competing suppliers in this market are USA and Chile. Their products are cheap, but the agricultural model is very far from ours. They use an intensive agricultural model without any control on watering, fertilization, and phytosanitary products. The harvest in Chile has been average and the USA don’t have much left in stock. These two facts give us hope for a decent season.
What estimations do you have for the rest of 2024?
The harvest is about to start within a few days, by the end of September. The harvest forecasting for 2024 let’s hope in a quite good season.
The total volume harvested should be in line with the average of the last 10 years, or even slightly lower. The size of the walnuts will be average, but sufficient to supply all our customers. The price paid to producers relies on the size of the walnuts, the volume harvested and quality. Therefore, in order to keep our farms competitive, it is essential that the price remains in a reasonable level.
We have just had two years really complicated regarding the market trends and the economy of the sector. But we are confidence in the coming season.