Canada, a country that supplies 80% of the brown-grain seeds needed for the French production of mustard, suffered a heatwave in 2021. The high temperatures halved production leaving companies scrambling to secure seed supplies. On top of this, a mild winter in France itself meant the country’s own harvests were also limited. 

Since then, French farmers have been incentivized to grow more mustard seeds, as well as Canadian supply chains returning to normal. French mustard has returned to supermarket shelves and specialist stores in plentiful amounts. 

Jared Koerten, head of ecommerce at Euromonitor International, says, “We saw a massive spike in online mustard sales in Q2 and Q3 last year that has dropped off across every retailer. Overall online mustard sales in France have dropped 80% in Q2 this year compared with the previous year showing the true scale of last year’s mustard crisis in the country. 

“We map real Stock Keeping Units (SKU) purchase data from clickstream panels, e-receipts and online retailers to a globally standardized taxonomy using our expertise in machine learning and data science, helping companies take the guesswork out of tracking online sales performance. The mustard situation is just one example of this.”