“This Lavender Fair in Digne is an institution, especially as it celebrates its centenary this year! Installed in her stand on the Place du Général-de-Gaulle, in the center of Digne-les-Bains (Alpes-de-Haute-Provence), Marie-France Girard offers the many visitors to the Lavender Fair her oils essentials and its bouquets produced on the grounds of Vieux-Moulin, in Estoublon.
20,000 people are expected until Monday, the closing day of a fair which started on Thursday with 150 exhibitors. When it was created in 1922, it was intended to show this emblematic plant of Haute-Provence to perfumers before becoming over the years a popular and free festival, which attracts an audience from all the neighboring departments.
An early harvest due to the heat
Although lavender producers sell the bulk of their harvest to cooperatives, which then export throughout the world in the form of essential oil, after distillation, exhibitors appreciate the direct contact with customers, especially since the harvest has dropped this year with the drought.
“We had to bring forward the collection by a fortnight at the beginning of July, we did 30% less production compared to last year”, confirm Jérôme and Cyril Blanc, the fourth generation of lavender farmers on the Plateau de Valensole, which also offer distillation demonstrations. “The cobs were smaller than usual, but it is still too early to know what impact this will have on prices, especially since we are now in competition with regions, such as Auvergne, which have embarked on the production of lavender and lavandin. »