“We can't leave anyone by the wayside”: how the Mediterranean regional committee supports shellfish farming installations

Fabrice Grillon, le directeur du Comité régional de conchyliculture de Méditerranée. Midi Libre – W. N.

Fabrice Grillon, the director of the CRCM, discusses the solutions provided to deal with the many retirements within the profession.

How is generational renewal a major issue for the profession ?

Transmission is a real challenge. A few years ago, we conducted a territorial identification operation in Occitanie. Of the 500 operators, 50% were going to have to retire in the coming years. Today, we have massive waves of retirements, around thirty per year. We also have all the recurring crises, the pond that is becoming impoverished, which is less productive and therefore the cost of production that continues to increase. Companies are throwing in the towel and today, the sector is on a knife edge.

The CRCM has set up the UITR (installation and transmission unit), can you tell us more about it ?

The installation candidates were present but given the specificity of the regulatory framework for shellfish farming, setting up was an obstacle course. So in 2023, we created the UITR, which is the installation and transmission unit, as part of our shellfish farming sector contract signed in 2019. We support, through training, those who are about to leave in order to leave in good conditions, by helping them to define the real price for their operation. For installation, we also work with candidates to bring out the right projects and find the right company for them.

With what assistance ?

To do this, we collaborate with different stakeholders, such as the Lycée de la Mer to consolidate the training offered (read opposite) or with the Occitanie Region to set up, via European funds, an allocation for installation candidates. Aid that can go up to €40,000 outside the family framework and €25,000 for the family framework. Other systems exist in the territory such as Initiative Thau which can provide zero-interest loans of up to €10,000. For our part, with the State services, we have created practical guides for project leaders. We are sufficiently equipped to support candidates wherever they come from.

Also read: Who are these young people enrolled at the Lycée de la Mer with the goal, in the long term, of becoming oyster producers?

Purchase prices between €100,000 and €200,000

To get started in shellfish production, future entrepreneurs must pay between 100,000 and 200,000 euros, according to Cécile Charland, project manager at the CRCM in charge of coordinating the UITR. A price that can vary depending on the length or location of the tables (at least two are needed to start an oyster farming activity). “Some are, for example, more productive than others because they are located in preferential currents. The price is set by the State services”, indicates the project manager. This variability is also explained by the surface area or the equipment available to the shellfish farm on land.

To this must be added the purchase of a boat for work on the pond, commercial outlets (tastings, direct sales, etc.) and any stocks from the previous operator. “As we are on rather long production cycles, it helps to be able to have stock from the beginning”,indicates Cécile Charland. Thus, because of this high variability, the price for some farms can sometimes exceed 200,000 euros. Like the farm taken over by Louis Gautier and Lucas De Coninck (see previous page) who had to pay 350,000 euros, not including the additional work.

Exactly where do they come from ?

They come from the inner circle, but we also have profiles with somewhat clichéd career changes, post-Covid type, with these forty-something executives, with a little money set aside, who want to return to their roots, a job that makes sense. And shellfish farming meets all of that. On the environmental aspect, we are the only sector without inputs, there is the outdoor job side on the water and the relationship to consumption with direct sales. We have to do everything we can, we have to get everyone settled. We can't leave anyone by the wayside.

How many people have been supported by the UITR so far? ?

The UITR welcomed 40 people in 2023: a quarter abandoned the installation project, a quarter settled, 5% are still in training and the rest are thinking about it. That is to say, they are consolidating their project and are still incubated by the UITR. There were 18 business creations financed under the Region's support system. There is real momentum. It's not as bad as it could have been. If there had been no strategy, there would have been fewer installations.

Read also:Meeting with these new shellfish farmers who have chosen to settle around the Thau lagoon

Will this help to compensate for the departure of professionals? ?

I don't think it will be compensated but it will be mitigated by business expansion, installation… There are also perhaps other models to imagine. Like the establishment of relay farms or nursery farms. For two or three years, in this fully equipped farm, a project leader will be able to get through the difficult stages, he will have better credibility to buy the farm. Another idea: think about alternative support with other sources of financing for large farms with 15-20 tables. There is also a demand, which is not shared by the entire profession, from entrepreneurs who would like to live on site. Why not imagine temporary occupation permits that will be issued according to the age of the candidate for a period of seven years for example.

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