Translations Best practice in French version Best practice in English version

COCORETTE hens create local employment and lasting relationships with producers

2. Human Rights

Diversity, equal opportunity, and fighting discrimination

Context

Cocorette is egg business established in 1983 in Sainte Catherine-les-Arras (department 62, France). In reaction to the industrialization of agriculture in the 1980s, the company's founders wanted to go back towards farm-practices of yesteryear and offer the consumer high-quality farm-produced eggs. Today, Cocorette distributes Label Rouge farm eggs and organic eggs. 

Animal welfare and CSR criteria are at the heart of the company's development.

Objectives

  • Encouraging local employment and lasting relationships with producers
  • Enabling employment of people with disabilities

APPROACH

Cocorette has a concept that's unique in France: farm eggs (laid on straw in individual wooden nests, gathered by hand), answering to the latest trends (locavores, the renewed search for homemade, high-quality food, higher expectations from a more demanding consumer base). 

Cocorette is also a human chain: 150 employees and 300 farms spread all over France, working daily to be able to offer the best possible eggs to the consumer; partnerships (CIWF – WWF – PMAF for animal welfare, Auchan and Carrefour for the commercial side, FEEF and Alliances for social and company support).

Lastly, Cocorette is also a force for maintaining local employment:

  • The company enables profitable and sustainable business for 400 farms all over France.

 

  • It supports 33 feed manufacturers and 7 hatcheries (companies that raise chicks and then sell the ready to lay pullets to Cocorette). That implies following Cocorette's stringent requirements, a fair price for the producer and better traceability. This strategy keeps fragile farmsteads from disappearing.
  • Cocorette establishes contractual relationships with its producers so as to safeguard their interests against market fluctuations: The egg purchase contracts are established for 10 years, and the purchase price is indexed to feed prices so that the producer's margins will be preserved whatever the feed cost fluctuations. Cocorette bears any fluctuation in feed costs, and in case of price raises, accepts the risk of not always being able to correspondingly increase sale prices to distributors. 

For the last 5 years, Cocorette has been working with sheltered workshops (ESAT structures in France) in the 5 regions where the company is located: handling tasks (placing printed discount tags on the boxes), helping Cocorette workers with chicken coop upkeep, caring for layers, opening the hatches in the morning and closing them in the evening, filling the wooden nests with straw, gathering the eggs by hand, sorting the eggs etc. The company also organizes yearly workshops with the ESAT structures, so that people with a disability can participate in farm work, be introduced to the concepts of ecology, sustainable development and to the social values embodied by such a project.

CONTRIBUTION TO COMPANY PERFORMANCE

  • Turnover has been progressing steadily since company creation,
  • 2013 turnover: 42 million euros, +25% over the last 2 years
  • Meaningful project for employees

Benefits

  • Improving income for 400 producers
  • Formation of a farmer association and a solidarity fund
  • 5 part-time jobs created in the ESAT structures
Workforce
53
Turnover
57M€
Country
France

COCORETTE

4, rue du Four à Chaux
62223 SAINTE CATHERINE LES ARRAS

www.cocorette.com

Contact

Emeraude Lamiet, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Mise à jour le 14/11/2017

Creative Commons Attribution This work by Réseau Alliances – World Forum Lille is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.