Will boxes of Camembert soon be banned?

Attention, storm warning in bocage in Normandy… As if the threat to raw milk wasn’t enough, producers of traditional Camembert have just learned that their famous wooden crates, which are an integral part of their product as an asset element, may be banned by European regulations that are currently being studied.

This non-recyclable packaging could be banned by 2030 to protect the environment. A prospect that worries many industry professionals. “We know that our poplar boxes protect the organoleptic qualities of our cheeses. And then, the image of Camembert, the main symbol of our terroir, is associated all over the world with these wooden boxes. So, of course, there are other, more serious problems in our sector, but there is no point in adding difficulties,” explains Emily Flechard, president of the Gillot cheese factory, which produces 7 million Camemberts a year.

2000 jobs in France

And that’s not all… Removing this packaging will also have direct social consequences. “Lightweight wooden packaging today supports 2,000 jobs in France and 45 companies that will be affected,” warns the Lacroix group, which produces 200 million of these wooden packaging every year.

The fact remains that the European Union predicts a 19% increase in packaging waste by 2030, which it believes justifies the commitment to act to make all this waste recyclable, including those cheese boxes, however symbolic neither were they.