2023-08-16 17:35:26
A deliciously scented purple coat with the Vercors natural park as a backdrop. Early August is ” Post card “ usually offered by the lavandin fields of Alain Archinard, installed in the heart of the Diois country. But this year, the nine hectares of flowers that usually surround the family farm have given way to grayish and parched plots.
However, it was not the drought which, as in 2022, jeopardized its production of lavandin, a variety of lavender which grows at low altitude, but a parasite: the moth caterpillar, deposited at the end of July by butterflies pushed by the sirocco, a southerly wind from the Sahara.
A flash disaster
In the Drôme but also the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, the Ardèche and the Vaucluse, only a few days were enough to wreak havoc: « Friday, July 21, everything was fine. The crops were beautiful and the harvest was looking much more promising than in 2022remembers the lavender grower in front of his now broken plants. The following Sunday, I began to observe pucks, i.e. gray circles in the fields: the stems had already been devoured by the caterpillars, causing the flowers to fall… »
The proliferation of worms was such that Alain Archinard and his colleagues in the sector, with whom he shares a machine, launched the harvest in stride to limit losses to a minimum. That is three weeks before the usual calendar for certain varieties, such as lavandin abrial, estimates the farmer. “We were only at the beginning of flowering”he continues, estimating that he will lose in all, this year, between 40 and 50% of his production.
In France, the scourge is not new, nor unknown to professionals. In 2018 and 2019, the caterpillars had already attacked lavender production in the same regions. Spared at the time, Alain Archinard remembers that the phenomenon had then been more or less controlled thanks to the laying of traps against the butterflies. “The scale and speed at which it happened this year was unheard of”he says.
An already fragile market
For the moment, producer associations are still seeing the damage. «They vary from 30 to 90%, depending on the areareports Éliane Bres, president of the France Lavande cooperative. The Rhone Valley suffers no loss because the cut begins earlier, at the end of June, when the caterpillars were not yet born. On the other hand, the most affected sites are in the mountains, where the harvests are later.»continues the lavender farmer, herself based in Brette in the Alps.
This disastrous parasitic episode comes at a time when producers have already been under pressure for several years, with a particularly low lavender price. Its fall, since 2019, is due in particular to French overproduction and European competition from Bulgaria, Spain, Greece… “Currently, we have about a year and a half of stocksupports the president of France Lavande. Prices need to rise again, because selling at €9 or €10 per kilo is not acceptable. » In 2019, lavandin sold at €35 per kilogram.
Last summer, the government offered a premium for uprooting to reverse the trend: 10 million euros in subsidies provided for in the amending finance law. Faced with the scourge of the moth caterpillar, producer associations are also hoping for a boost from the State. “But without much hope”sighs Eliane Bres.
Preparing for the coming year
The concern that now hovers among French lavender growers concerns the year to come. «Technicians have already designed pheromone traps to attract female butterflies. If we catch any, this proves the presence of cocoons and it will then be necessary to constantly check the birth of the caterpillars.s. The only solution will be to treat»regrets the president of France Lavande.
Despite this difficult period, Alain Archinard does not completely lose hope. Under a blazing sun, he sees some of his plants turn green under the corpses of his devoured stems. The Drôme sincerely hopes that he will not have to use insecticides to hunt a new tide of moth caterpillars, and is already preparing to have to “watch his fields closely, day and night”.
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