Deciduous Fruit Canning in France 
by Henry O. Wagley, Jr. 
Fruit and Vegetable Division 
Introduction 
Irrigation, up-to-date cultural practices, and heavy investment in new, modern processing plants are 
restructuring and relocating the French canned deciduous fruit industry. Traditionally, canned deciduous fruit 
production was concentrated in the Pyrenees Orientales area of the Languedoc region and served as a home for 
surplus fruit produced for the fresh market. Now, the Mediterranean Languedoc region near Nimes is being 
redeveloped and planted with fruit produced specifically for processing. 
French production of canned deciduous fruit is still relatively small, totaling 1,958,000 cases, equivalent 
24/2% basis, in 1967. The pack can be expected to increase slowly in the older established area. The real potential 
lies in the new land being developed in the Languedoc region. Production of deciduous fruit for canning is also being 
developed on a smaller scale on the island of Corsica. 
Production of clingstone peaches, the major fruit canned, will increase rapidly in the newer area during the 
early 1970’s. Sufficient acreage has been planted to support a French clingstone pack approaching 1.9 million cases 
in the next 5 years. If the price of canned fruit continues to decline within France, much of the expanded canned 
peach pack could be absorbed domestically and by natural expansion into the canned fruit markets of the other EC 
countries. The French balance of trade in canned fruit can be expected to switch from a net inflow to a net outflow, 
and French penetration of the canned peach market in other EC countries could reach 10-15 percent during the next 
5 years. 
Fruit Production 
Main producing regions 
France has five major fruit producing regions, which cut a wide swath across the south from the Atlantic 
Ocean to the Italian and Swiss borders. These regions are Aquitaine, Midi Pyrenées, Languedoc, RhGne Alpes, and 
Provence-Cote d’Azur-Corsica. 
Commercial canning of deciduous fruit, except plums, is important only in the Languedoc region. The 
Lorraine region of northeastern France is an important center for Mirabelle plums. Commercial canning of deciduous 
fruit is being developed on the island of Corsica in the Provence-COte d’Azur-Corsica region, where a modern 
cannery is scheduled to begin operation during the 1969 season. Commercial processing in the other regions is 
confined mostly to production of jams and preserves. Some of the fruit grown in these regions is shipped into 
Languedoc for canning. 
Languedoc Region.—The Languedoc region can be called the heart of the French canned fruit industry. It 
consists of five Departments skirting the Mediterranean Sea from the Spanish border to the city of Nimes. These 
departments are Pyrenées-Orientales, Aude, Hérault, Gard, and Lozére. Terrain varies from mountainous along the 
region’s interior border down through hills and plateaus to the narrow Mediterranean plain. Production of canned 
deciduous fruit is mostly concentrated in two separate areas—an older area in Pyrenées-Orientales in the south and a 
newer area in Hérault and Gard in the east. 
