L'huile de pépins de raisin en France et dans le monde

Abstract

With a total global annual production of approximately 35 000 tons, of which 10 000 tons are from French factories, grape seed oil is a niche product. Though its price is now over twice that of high-volume oils like sunflower, until only recently this product was still in search of outlets. Indeed, grape seed, and marc more generally, was still in the 1970s no more than a by-product of the wine industry for which, since its dispersion across agricultural land had been prohibited, it was necessary to identify an end-use. Today, via a relatively low-yielding process, 70 000 tons of grape seeds derived from French winemaking produce annually between 11 and 12 000 tons of crude oil, which results in approximately 10 000 tons of refined oil. Drawing on its positive nutritional image and technological qualities (fluidity), grape seed oil has gained export markets, notably in the United States and South Korea.