This article is taken from the
special Figaro "From East to West - Living in Canada why not you?"
.
This issue offers you to answer the questions you ask yourself as simply as possible.
This, with the help of practical texts, maps and testimonials from French people living in Canada.
Twenty-two years ago, Vincent More finished his studies in the timber trade in the Doubs.
In 2000, he arrived for an internship in Bas-Saint-Laurent, one foot in the water and the other in the forest.
While working for a local business export assistance organization, he discovered maple syrup.
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Leaving France with a suitcase, he moved to Trois-Pistoles and integrated without difficulty.
“I was born on skis in the Jura and I swam here, with the snow, like a fish in water.
I did a lot of sports and made friends quickly.
»
In 2015, he created his own company.
"I wanted to be my own boss."
He chooses… maple products from the second-largest maple-producing region in Quebec.
If maple syrup is therefore the star of the Nokomis company, it prepares and sells many other products made from maple sap: spreads, maple butters, maple sugar, jellies, caramels and candies. maple…
We produce 1.3 million liters of maple syrup per year and we export it to around 30 countries, particularly in Europe.
Vincent More
Seventeen years later, Nokomis has twenty employees and is expanding for the fourth time.
The company is one of the ten largest maple sap processors and exporters of maple products in Quebec.
“We produce 1.3 million liters of maple syrup per year and we export to around thirty countries, particularly in Europe,”
says Vincent.
But what he is also proud of is working hand in hand with 150 families of maple syrup producers, passionate artisans who harvest maple sap every spring in their forests in Chaudière-Appalaches, Gaspésie and Bas- Saint Laurent.
“We had to earn their trust,”
said the one who also won that of the voters of the beautiful neighboring village of Notre-Dame-du-Portage, on the banks of the river.
He has been mayor since 2013.
“Municipal politics,
he admits,
is another of my passions.”
Seaweed hunter in Gaspésie
In August 2011, Antoine Nicolas arrived from Boulogne-sur-Mer in Grande-Rivière, in Gaspésie, to finish his studies at the School of Fisheries and Aquaculture.
This 23-year-old Breton is seduced by
“the landscapes and the warmth of the inhabitants of Gaspésie”.
After his master's degree in food science and technology, specializing in seafood products, he worked in Gaspésie with a closed work permit, notably for Gaspésie Fisheries.
Already a professional diver in France, he discovered the world of algae (under-exploited resource) off Forillon National Park and started first as a self-employed worker then by incorporating his company – Ocean of flavors – in 2016.
The daily challenge is also work-family balance
Anthony Nicholas
“At first, I was harvesting seaweed for a research project at the School of Fisheries, then I started supplying fresh seaweed to restaurants in Quebec and Montreal.”
Today, he runs his online store, 150 restaurant customers and 450 points of sale in Canada distribute his products: whole or flaked
seaweed ,
seaweed condiments
... resources and good support from the government, but when you offer a new product, you have to put a lot of energy into educating the clientele and creating its market.”
He wears several hats: fisherman, processor, distributor, online store manager…
“The daily challenge is also work-family balance.”
The pandemic has also hit the company hard.
"We lost 70% of turnover in 2020 and, even if we returned to the growth stage
of 2019, I am cautious."
"From East to West - Living in Canada why not you?"
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From East to West - Living in Canada why not you?
Le Figaro
