Fishing, collection, distribution and marketing of live shellfish (oysters, mussels, clams, cockles, etc.) from the areas of Grandcamp-Maisy and Géfosse-Fontenay, affected by norovirus (
responsible for gastroenteritis
) have been prohibited since end December.
They have been authorized again since January 17, 2024.
Thierry Hélie, oysters from the Géfosse-Fontenay and Grandcamp-Maisy parks are once again marketable.
We can imagine the relief for the profession…
It's a nice surprise.
The legal deadline is 28 days to see if the environment has returned to normal.
This is the case, so much the better, despite a lot of rain, which could have caused incidents.
The recovery chain worked.
This ban fell right in the strategic holiday period.
What is the feedback from professionals?
We compile their responses to our questionnaires.
Losses from sales withdrawals and recalls and canceled orders must be taken into account.
The oysters were not paid for, the labor was lost.
Losses of five to seven million euros for businesses are estimated over this period.
And then, you have to plan for poor sales for at least six months, the time to regain consumer confidence.
The president of the Channel North Sea regional shellfish farming committee, Thierry Hélie.
DR
How do producers approach this long period of uncertainty?
Oyster beds must be maintained.
Meanwhile, the oysters that have not been sold and that have been returned to the parks are growing and are out of standard.
We consume caliber three.
But less of caliber two and even less of caliber one.
However, these oysters will be this size after six months.
They will also compete, for food, with younger oysters.
We'll have to make room.
We are attentive to the situation of businesses, especially young people who have just set up business or structures weakened by Covid or viruses.
They know they can contact the committee.
This is not the first closure of the Géfosse-Grandcamp deposit.
Why is the situation repeating itself?
This sector closed three times in 2023. The presence of norovirus, the gastroenteritis virus, is linked to human activity.
The oyster filters the water, the human sends it its junk and the oyster gives it back.
We think of pipes that send pollution to the sea. It can come from sewage treatment plants, poorly designed travel areas, non-collective sanitation.
There is a sanitation problem, highlighted by assessments carried out on parks elsewhere in France.
Do you regret a lack of public responsiveness to resolve these problems?
We wonder why elected officials do not want to create a SAGE (Water development and management plan) for the Aure (
which is one of the rivers which flow into the
Bay of Veys
).
We ask the prefect of Calvados that SAGE be put on the agenda.
This would make it possible to diagnose and recommend corrections.
We wonder if there is something to hide.
As nothing is done, we become suspicious.
Water quality is the responsibility of the State, which has entrusted it to the intercommunal authorities.
We don't understand this lack of responsiveness.
Have you returned to the State?
No one has contacted us and we don't even know which ministry we report to.
Even our national representation structure (the national shellfish farming committee) is missing the point.
It is seen as an additional administration.
These are Parisian administrations talking among themselves, disconnected from the field.
In 2020, during another virus episode, we had only words and no actions.
We are preparing a complaint against X to understand our problem, which comes up every 18 months.
Besides the question of responsibilities, how do you plan to win back the consumer?
There is the informed consumer, who knows that a closure could happen and who will come back.
And then there is the “one-shot” consumer, who eats oysters at Christmas and who, after seeing closures in 2018, 2019/2020, 2022/2023, will end up going without oysters.
We are going to reassure, affix the PGI (Protected Geographical Indication) acronym “Huîtres de Normandie”, saying that the closures are a guarantee of safety.
Also say that a zone which closes is not the entire region!
There are checks, self-checks.
We must reassure the consumer.