Plums, apples, pears, cherries, mirabelles… Marcel Grosbusch & Fils has planted 1,000 fruit trees around its new warehouse in Ellange. The orchard will allow the Luxembourgish wholesaler to highlight the importance of the local economy and production by producing its own seasonal and regional fruit. “The demand for local products and shorter supply chains is growing. At the moment, we are not able to meet that demand. Therefore, our goal is to generate initiatives in this regard and to prove that it is entirely possible to grow and sell fruits in wholesale quantities here in Luxembourg”, explains René Grosbusch.

A revival of the orchards?
As a pilot project meant to attest to its performance, the Ellange orchard is intended to convince potential partners to support the efforts of Marcel Grosbusch & Fils in promoting the regional economy. By collaborating with arborists, farmers, landowners and local associations, the eventual goal is to launch a project on a much larger scale: an orchard of 50,000 trees covering 20 hectares in south-eastern Luxembourg, between Ellange, Mondorf-les-Bains, Schengen and Remich. In other words, the ambition is to trigger a revival of independent and local orchards, with the produce benefiting from a guaranteed minimum purchase price.

Bees: a vital contribution
In addition to the planting of the fruit trees at its Ellange site, the company will install beehives in the orchard. In cooperation with Luxembourgish beekeepers, five hives of 80,000 bees each will be acquired to allow the bees to pollinate the trees. For Marcel Grosbusch & Fils, this is an excellent opportunity to increase public awareness of the importance of bees within our ecosystem. While the beehives will allow the family company to produce its own honey, the orchard will also serve as a teaching and information tool for the company’s future children’s educational centre: Grosbusch Kids.