Confronted by a saturated market, French scallop fishermen have called on the country’s fisheries minister to tighten up controls on the illegal scallop products entering the French market.
In an open letter, Pierre-Georges Dachicourt, president of the France’s National Maritime Fisheries Committee (NMFC), asked Bruno Le Maire to reinforce controls to stop the “unprecedented” arrival of illegal scallop imports.
“It is no longer possible for us to continue without some security vis-à-vis economic viability and without assurance for the durability of our businesses,” said Dachicourt.
“The poor sales on the coast concerning fresh fish species such as hake, crab and scallops reveal the difficulties that our fishermen today are seeing,” he added.
While the market took a downward turn at the beginning of the year, as the new season kicked off earlier this month, several factors, notably the unprecedented rise of uncontrolled imports, have actually exacerbated the crisis, according to the NMFC.
For example, in a bid to soak up scallops unsold on the open market, the local producer organization OPBN in Basse-Normandie, a region on the northern coast of France, announced recently it will pay EUR 2.05 (USD 3.05) for scallops that are not purchased. These scallops will be frozen or the meat will be removed and sold separately.
Responding to the call for action, Le Maire announced last week that he had been in discussions with regional directors of maritime affairs in order to reinforce surveillance operations, fishing activities and the landings and transport of hake caught in French waters.
Further, in a bid to boost consumer sales, the minister asked key players in distribution channels to organize promotions of certain products originating from quality supply chains, such as crab and hake.
The FCD, France’s federation of retailers, which includes Carrefour and Groupe Casino, has “responded positively to this request, and decided to carry out promotions until November,” said Le Maire.
In parallel, Le Maire announced he would rapidly set up a “buy French” marketing campaign to encourage consumers to buy local product.
While the market remains tough for French scallop fishermen, recent data suggests French consumers certainly have an appetite for scallops. French national agriculture and fisheries body FranceAgriMer reported earlier this year that while sales of crustaceans, cephalopods and shellfish fell by 3 percent from January to July 2009, scallops bucked the trend, with consumers buying twice as many as the previous year.
“Promotions and a 10 percent fall in price are certainly not strangers to the boost in consumption,” said FranceAgriMer , adding that a rise in imports from the United Kingdom and the United States also played a role in the consumption increase.
