2024-08-04 18:27:09
French fries? Yes, but “only” with mussels. A glass of wine, lemon, butter and bread? Yes, but only with oysters, clams and shrimps. In Charente-Maritime, some oyster tasting houses have come under the spotlight of restaurateurs accused of “abuse” and “unfair competition”.
Now, the county has issued a regulation requiring midnight closings, strict health standards and a list of authorized sweets and the sale of shellfish. “Ancillary” products, including seafood purchased from outside – conch, crabs and other langoustines – will no longer be able to account for more than 49% of the turnover achieved by shellfish farmers.
Nearly 60 tasting rooms
“Some wine-tasting huts have become restaurants or even nightclubs in their own right. They host weddings and techno or suckling pig nights. We are still far from the original spirit,” said Guillaume Jacques, president of the Charente-Maritime Hotel Trade and Industry Union (Umih), who called for tighter state controls.
Philippe Morandeau, president of the Poitou-Charentes Regional Shellfish Commission (CRC), stressed that the commission had issued a “balanced” decree “that was approved by everyone, including Umih 17”.
Nearly 60 shellfish farmers run a tasting hut in Charente-Maritime. Sébastien Réglin, an oyster farmer on the Ile de Ré, recalls the fall in prices, the “major crisis” the industry has been through and the need to diversify activities and sales channels to keep the farms alive. “The sales between Easter and Halloween are equivalent to one and a half Christmases,” he calculated.
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