We've won the 2024 Excellence Award!

At the end of January, our CEO and milk producer, Guy Le Bars, went to Paris to receive the 2024 Excellence Award on behalf of the company during an official ceremony attended by the Minister for Agriculture and the General Commissioner of the General Agricultural Competition.

This award pays tribute to our expertise, our farmers’ and employees’ commitment to producing the best dairy products, and the quality of our products.

The Excellence Award, the crème de la crème

For almost 25 years, the CGA has granted an Excellence Award to those producers who achieve excellent results at the competition. The aim is to emphasise top-quality work over time by rewarding those producers whose products regularly win awards at the competition. 

In 2024, only 37 companies won this award across all categories.

Laïta received the Excellence Award for the premium quality of its Paysan Breton products, three of which have scooped awards over the past three years:

• Paysan Breton Slightly Salted Moulded Butter (gold medal in 2022 and 2023);
• Madame Loïk Plain Whipped Cheese with Guérande Sea Salt (gold medal in 2020* and 2023);
• Thick Crème Fraîche 30% (sold to catering professionals – silver medal in 2020* and bronze medal in 2023).

What’s more, we were the only company to have won this award in the ‘Butter, Fromage Frais and Cream’ category.

The farmers and employees of our cooperative are all extremely proud of this substantial and prestigious reward!

How does this award differ from the other prizes at the competition?

For 150 years, the General Agricultural Competition has awarded prizes (medals) that showcase the taste and quality of products from French agricultural sectors, with the aim of supporting the excellence and diversity of French know-how.

It is the longest-running, largest and most selective of all the agricultural competitions, unparalleled in the world. Each year, hundreds of producers present their products that are assessed by an independent panel of volunteer judges, half of whom are professionals and the other half expert consumers.

The judges base their decisions on the quality level of the products and their taste. They do not necessarily award medals if the quality level of the products is considered insufficient, so there is no guaranteed podium. This nuance highlights the excellence of the award-winning products. 

The Excellence Award is granted to producers who have won awards during the last three editions of the competition, based on a calculation which takes into account the medals obtained. Paysan Breton regularly wins awards at this competition – a source of motivation which we are all extremely proud of. It is also proof that our consumers can continue to place their trust in us because we don’t compromise on quality when we make Paysan Breton products. 

For many years Paysan Breton has been committed to offering dairy products made exclusively with milk from Brittany and Pays de la Loire, with due respect for our farmer members (who are owners of our company, that’s what our cooperative is all about!) and their animals. In choosing Paysan Breton, consumers get short ingredients lists that they can trust and 99% French ingredients.

*As the 2021 edition of the CGA was cancelled due to Covid, the three-year calculation was based on the 2020, 2022 and 2023 editions.