Why shellfish farmers are mobilizing to form a land-sea protest on Friday in Montpellier

La coupe est pleine aussi pour les conchyliculteurs qui appellent à manifester à Montpellier. Midi Libre – JEAN MICHEL MART

Le Comité régional conchylicole de Méditerranée rejoint le mouvement agricole et s'associe à la manifestation de ce vendredi 26 janvier, à Montpellier. Son président Patrice Lafont en détaille les raisons et explique pourquoi la colère est grande.

"So everyone on the road, with your boots and your sailor shirts for Montpellier!" It's a fire smoldering. It didn't take a big spark to see it burst.

This Wednesday, the Mediterranean Regional Shellfish Committee (CRCM) announced that it was joining the agricultural protest movement led by the FDSEA and the Young Farmers of the # 39;Hérault demonstrating in Montpellier this Friday, January 26. "We are all farmers. We had in any case planned an action between the different French committees following the events in the Atlantic. It is natural that we join this movement because we share the demands on the profitability of farms, the increase in costs, administrative constraints…", justifies Patrice Lafont.

"I would like to be in the dialogue but here, my patience credit is exhausted."

The president of the CRM does not have harsh enough words to describe the mistakes that shellfish farmers also have to face. "We have been engaged in a constructive approach for 5 years with state services and all partners through a sector contract. The first stage was carried out with around a hundred actions carried out by the profession. But there were points that were harmful to the sector over which we had no control. And these are the only subjects on which, curiously, we are not making progress! I want to be in the dialogue but if there is none in front. There, my patience credit is exhausted."

There is no shortage of subjects of anger: securing production areas both on land and at sea, water quality & quot;that the State is not able to guarantee us", the problem of urbanization and sanitation with "this inability to enforce the polluter-pays principle, which has been enshrined in the environmental code for decades". ..

"We are the only ones to be victims of this contamination of the environment. We are stigmatized in the media who equate it with a responsibility of the producers when they are not responsible. There is a service called the Water Police, which draws up reports but which are not followed up with effects. This is no longer audible", annoys Patrice Lafont.

The silence of the Secretary of State, the slowness of the administration…

In the ridges that remain across the gorge, there is also the silence of the Secretary of State for the Sea. Met this fall in Nice after the episode of pathogenic virus which destroyed 70% of marketable oysters between May and August, Hervé Berville had to respond in writing on several subjects: water quality, health rules, regulations managed by the State, harmonization of regulations, land issues. Still nothing at the end of January…

So, Patrice Lafont explodes: "We had estimated the losses at 7 M€ during the last 28 days of closure. But the drop in consumption impacted us for longer and I myself had to take out a loan to save my farm. There, five months after the loss of our marketable oysters, we have only just received the compensation forms to which many professionals will not be entitled. The State must understand that the administration's time is not that of our businesses. We want to make an effort but we have to stop taking ourselves for idiots!"

In the thick list of grievances, there is also real estate pressure. "We are obliged to defend with our limited means the sectors reserved for shellfish farming. In fact, changes in the destination of shellfish farms will accelerate because we have great difficulty renewing businesses: we have a third of installations for two thirds of leavers. By dint of destroying the profession, we no longer attract young people. As a result, more and more farms will be transformed into vacation spots. This is unacceptable."

"Now we're going to make ourselves heard differently"

You must not forget the town planning documents. "In the PLUs, there are rules contrary to the practice of our activity. When I ask the mayors to make them compatible, I have no answer", points out the boss of the CRCM, who mentions & quot;regulatory texts applied in Hérault and nowhere else on taxation, town planning and health". &amp ;quot;This contributes to fed up. I'm tired of fighting against windmills."

In the anger unleashed, there are finally these human tragedies. "There have been four suicides of shellfish farmers in France. Three killed themselves during the Christmas holidays. The industry is no longer ready to hear promises that have never been kept. The work had to be done for years and it was not done. Now we're going to make ourselves heard differently."