The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

Coffee and cocoa imported by sailboat: the crazy challenge of the Breton company Grain de Sail

2021-08-14T06:48:36.000Z


FIGARO DEMAIN - Two brothers, Jacques and Olivier Barreau, have decided to decarbonize the transport of these everyday products.


Importing coffee and cocoa with the force of the wind: this is the challenge that Jacques and Olivier Barreau set themselves, two Breton brothers from naval wind engineering.

Their company, Grain de Sail, was founded with the crazy objective of "

decarbonizing the transport of these products that French consumers cannot do without

", says the company's marketing director, Stefan Gallard.

Read also: Measuring the benefits of wind for international maritime transport

Entrepreneurs on the wind farms of Saint-Nazaire, the twin brothers saw a large number of conventional freighters pass by and began to think of more ecological solutions for the transport of goods.

The wind appears to them as the perfect energy: inexhaustible, renewable and green.

The idea is thus to return to the ancestral methods of transport by sailboat by bringing them a modern and industrial dimension.

To carry out their project, they created Grain de Sail in 2010. Four Atlantic crossings later, the company has come a long way and achieved a turnover of five million euros in 2020, mainly thanks to sales of chocolate bars.

A technical and human challenge

Once the idea for the project had been finalized, and in order to begin financing and building the boat, it was first necessary to be sure of having profitable outlets for the raw materials to be transported. Grain de Sail therefore made the choice to produce its own coffee and chocolate bars from the beans sent by opening a coffee roasting workshop in 2013 and then a chocolate manufacturing plant in 2016. Initially, raw materials were imported in a conventional manner. Consumers quickly attended, aware that they were helping to finance the sailboat which would soon allow goods to be transported without emitting CO2. The promising economic record made it possible to start construction of the vessel in 2018.

Read also: »Discover the actors and initiatives of change

To design this 24-meter-long sailboat with a loading capacity of 50 tonnes and which cost no less than two million euros, Grain de Sail went "to

dig into the merchant navy for on-board equipment, at trawlers for the insulation of holds, or in solo racing systems for the safety of the navigator

”.

The boat is at the crossroads of technological paths like the company which, by importing raw materials, transforming them and distributing them, and at the crossroads of sectors.

Drawing inspiration from the modes of freight transport of yesteryear is therefore not synonymous with regression for the Breton company.

The desire is not "

to return to the artisanal transport of goods with old rigs which cannot dock in commercial ports

", explains Stefan Gallard. Grain de Sail sees things in a big way and wishes to develop on a larger scale to constitute a real alternative to conventional transport. The company's vessel can sail in all commercial ports in the world. It is the “

first cargo sailboat to comply with merchant navy standards

”, “

it can be unloaded by crane and has the latest electronic piloting systems

”, proudly tells the representative of the company. The loading of the fifty tons of goods is done, according to him, "

in a few hours

".

The adventure of the crossing

When the sailboat rolled out of the shipyard in 2020, everything was ready for the first crossing in November of the same year.

To collect cocoa and coffee, the ship therefore leaves Saint-Malo and takes 3 to 5 weeks to reach New York.

In order not to make the trip empty, he deposits a cargo of 8 to 20,000 bottles of organic French wine before leaving for the Dominican Republic where the hold is loaded with 35 to 37 tonnes of coffee and cocoa beans.

The crew then takes over the direction of Brittany where the raw materials will be processed by the Grain de Sail factories.

Two transatlantic loops can thus be made each year, the first from November to February and the second from April to July.

Loading of goods transported by the sailboat, in the port of Saint-Malo.

Grain of Sail

However, the crossings are not easy.

Patience is required when the winds are not favorable and the crew had to adapt to this new mode of transport, slower than conventional cargo ships.

The unforeseen are also the salt of the trip.

On the first crossing, arriving in New York at -7 ° C, the engine needed to make minor maneuvers in the ports broke down as a snowstorm was on the way.

The arrival in the New York Bay under the snow was a magical moment,

” says Stefan Gallard, however.

Products that are not yet completely green

However, the boat has a limited capacity which no longer allows it to meet the growing demand of the company. While waiting for the construction of the next vessel, Grain de Sail still uses conventional transport. In 2021, “

60% of raw materials were transported by sail

”, according to Stefan Gallard. Considering, according to company figures, that transport by sailboat reduces emissions by 98% on a transatlantic journey, the company therefore reduces its CO2 emissions by 59% compared to a company that would transport its goods in such a way. classic.

Road transport is also an important limit to decarbonization: "

To transport products from our factories to distribution points, we use the existing road transport offer

" explains the company, while also defending a model. relying on local channels to limit the carbon footprint. In fact, the products are only distributed in the west of France pending the opening of production sites linked to other ports on the Atlantic coast. The next chocolate factory will open its doors in Dunkirk and will, for example, supply the North of France and the Paris basin.

But ecology has a cost: 10 euro cents more per chocolate bar compared to sea transport by container ship.

The quality of the products, organic, and the size of the structure which limits economies of scale compared to the agri-food giants also add to the bill for consumers, even if Grain de Sail wants to defend "

l 'accessibility of products through affordable prices

'.

Paving the way for large-scale development

Grain de Sail is also convinced of the possibility of extending its model. Discussions with the shipyards are already underway to start the construction of a new sailboat with a length of 50 meters and a capacity of 300 tonnes in 2022. This should make it possible to transport all the necessary raw materials. to the satisfaction of demand but "

it is not possible to do much larger without switching to a hybrid

" explains Stefan Gallard. Its launch will also coincide with the opening of the new chocolate factory in Dunkirk. The establishment of chocolate factories in New York and Bordeaux is also mentioned with, each time,"

A new vessel to supply them in order to combine transport capacity with the growth of the company".

Read also: Shipowners are taking full advantage of the maritime transport boom

Grain de Sail hopes to finally pave the way for other companies to develop the transport of goods by sailboat.

Ambitious projects are thus on the way.

The company Zéphyr et Borée, based in Lorient, is developing a freighter with hybrid sails that will be used to transport the Ariane 6 launcher from the continent to Guyana.

The Neoline company also plans to launch sailing freighters and has signed partnerships with groups such as Renault or Manitou, keen to reduce the environmental impact of their supply chains.

These boats, whose capacity will be much greater than that of Sail's Grain vessels, will not operate 100% emission-free, but “

any improvement is good to take.

», Rejoices Stefan Gallard. The company has succeeded, as its name suggests, in putting its two cents in the merchant navy.

Source: lefigaro

All news articles on 2021-08-14

You may like

Trends 24h

News/Politics 2024-03-28T06:04:53.137Z

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.