“France is not able to produce two million soft toys in a few months,” says Olivier Veran.

Government spokesman Olivier Veran on Thursday deplored a “structural problem” which means France is unable to produce “in a matter of months” the two million stuffed animals that serve as mascots for the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games. . we don’t know how to do it,” the minister explained on France 2.

“On the other hand, we know how to encourage French companies that manufacture products in China to move to France,” he added. “It’s a structural problem with France losing its factories for years,” he continued, nevertheless considering that “France has again become the most attractive country in Europe for several years in a row” and “that tomorrow we will able to produce what we can no longer produce today.

On Monday, the organizers of the Olympic and Paralympic Games unveiled frigs, red Phrygian hats that will become mascots. With nearly 10,000 derivative products planned, almost all stuffed toys will be made in China, “like the vast majority of stuffed toys sold in France,” organizers of the Paris Olympics said.

Ecological Transition Minister Christophe Bechou described China’s production of mascots as a “problem”. “We won’t finish explaining the need for short circuits and relocations, with mascot production, which is done at the end of the world, including when advocating the prospect of combating global warming, which involves preferring what is produced nearby,” — the minister emphasized. The problem is that in France and even in Europe there is no opportunity to produce soft toys of an industrial and international scale, this has been for many years.

Entering the mascot market (with Gipsy), Doudou et compagnie makes a bold bet: it produces 15% of its quota at its factory in Guerches-de-Bretagne (Isle-et-Villaine). Alain Joly, head of this family-run SME, bought a former supermarket and employed about thirty people. This idea of ​​a move, which he had been hatching for several years, he says, “was made possible by the Olympic Games,” a market for a mascot that Dudo and company have secured, which will allow for production on a large scale. By producing 7,000 talismans a week in Brittany, Doudou et Compagnie will thus test the “viability” of its resettlement project, Alain Joly’s desire is also to avoid an “air pocket after 2024”. The “Made in France” mascot will leave the factory in January, but will cost about 50% more than the Chinese version. Upholstery, assembly and tailoring will be done in this factory, but raw materials and parts preparation will come from China.