When Philippe Le Gal brought his oysters to market this weekend, he expected them to sell quickly. It was, after all, New Year’s Eve, a day when treats are a crucial component of champagne-soaked celebrations in French homes and restaurants.
But not this time.
“We sold just 10 percent, almost nothing,” the oyster farmer told AFP.
The reason consumers are avoiding French oysters is a health scare that hit the industry last week when local authorities in the Gironde region noticed a wave of cases of gastroenteritis due to food poisoning.
An investigation identified norovirus — a highly contagious virus that causes vomiting and diarrhea — found in oysters from Arcachon Bay west of Bordeaux on France’s southwest Atlantic coast as the culprit.
Authorities quickly banned the harvesting and sale of oysters from the area and two other oyster-producing sites further north, Calvados and Manche, “until further notice.”
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They also told producers there to stop selling oysters that have already been harvested and for consumers to return them immediately.
The contamination was a result of sewage treatment plant flooding due to high levels of rainwater, which pushed raw sewage into the ocean where it contaminated oysters.
“Crisis without precedent”
The authorities promised to lift the ban “once the health quality of the shellfish is completely satisfactory again”.
But the local shellfish producers’ association warned that “an unprecedented economic crisis” is fast descending on the industry.
“People are panicking,” said Le Gall, who is also president of the National Shellfish Federation.
“They’ve stopped buying,” he said. “It’s a disaster.”
Le Gal said less than 10 percent of France’s total oyster production is affected by contamination, which represents about 8,000 tons a year.
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But the impact has rippled across the industry.
Philippe Morandeau, who heads the regional association of shellfish producers in the western Charente-Maritime region, said he too has suffered a collapse in sales, although his region has not been affected by contamination.
“I was at a market in La Pallice, near La Rochelle, and my sales were down 25 to 30 percent compared to previous years,” he told AFP.
Producers point out that the contaminations are not their fault, but due to insufficient sewage treatment capacity which is the responsibility of local authorities.
“The biggest factor is indeed the investment of local authorities in sewage treatment,” acknowledged the French government’s junior minister for maritime affairs, HervΓ© Berville.
“The temporary bans are not linked to the work of the shellfish farmers. They are linked to viruses, not to the quality of the oysters,” he told regional newspaper Ouest France over the weekend.
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“Not just a bug”
Oyster farmers feel they are victims of what they say are decades of underinvestment in water facilities.
“This has happened to us twice in two years. This is not just a problem,” said Olivier Laban, an oyster farmer who also heads the regional association of shellfish producers in Arcachon, the main area targeted by the ban.
“This cannot continue,” he told AFP.
Burville promised the government would meet with local authorities “to accelerate investment where needed”.
The oyster industry’s 375 production facilities in France make it “an essential sector for the local economy”, he said.
“We want to protect consumers as well as reassure the French about unaffected websites,” he said.
The government was, he added, ready to help offset the losses suffered by farmers.
But beyond the devastating financial impact of the measures on health and their effects, oyster farmers also worry about reputational damage that they say will be even harder to repair.
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“With every announcement they see on TV, people are canceling their orders,” Morado said.
“People just see the word ‘oyster’ in a title and don’t pay attention to any geographic distinction,” he said.
Le Gall said what he called a “horror” could even take oysters off French tables indefinitely.
France is the largest oyster producer in Europe as well as the continent’s largest consumer.
It is the fifth largest producer in the world, after China, South Korea, Japan and the United States.
Source: AFP