Tuesday 17th of March: at noon, France enters an unprecedented and historic period of containment which is to last at least a fortnight as a response to the international epidemic of the corona virus Covid-19.
In the morning, FranceAgrimer brought together the entire seafood industry in order to outline the direct consequences of the global economic slowdown already caused by the pandemic. “The essential point was to stress the importance of maintaining activity within the industry,” says Monique Tran, from FranceAgrimer. The food sector remains a priority and we have to take responsibility for the supply, particularly of fresh seafood.”
In fact, after the massive interventions to compensate for the losses due to the closure of school canteens (with the cessation of school classes) and restaurants, ordered without warning by the government on Saturday 16th of March, producer organisations stopped their support. And the boats are increasingly remaining in ports.
As for the wholesale and retail trade, they are proceeding in a random fashion.
“The lay-off for operational reasons will help us to get through this”, hopes Stéphane Fayet from Auvergne Marée. On social networks, Mericq has announced its decision to stop its activities. Transgourmet says that the company will remain open and ProcSea informs that exchanges will continue on the net.
“The demand from supermarkets is very high,” points out Jean Pierre Gonda, Chairman of Lerøy France. “And we have a lot of fish at our disposal since other markets refuse them. The interruption of flights is closing the Asian market in particular”. At the beginning of the line, salmon production is not a problem and exports are on the rise again after the drop in exports to China. “The Norwegian seafood industry plays a very important role in the food supply chain, both in Norway and worldwide,” declares Norwegian Minister of Fisheries Odd Emil Ingebrigtsen.
In France, all stakeholders in the transport of goods and logistics sector are mobilising to ensure the continuity of a sector that has become strategic, while calling on the government to take action in order to facilitate their tasks : schedule, protection and catering for the staff.
“There are and will be quantities to sell, even at low prices,” continues Jean-Pierre Gonda. “We will be fine, but others will not recover because fish is currently being sold off very cheaply. Fresh white fish, on the other hand, like cod, is completely at a standstill. In Norway, our boats supply the frozen sector.”
In this specific sector, Alexandre Bonneau of the SNCE believes that “problems arose for our members a month ago, when imports, which are still essential from China for white fish in particular, raised difficulties at the borders with regard to the original documents, as the Chinese industry was disorganised. However, the DGAL has authorised derogations and today, rather than production problems, the question is about storage requirements, since consumption is falling. We also have requests from fresh fish producers who are wondering about health and labelling requirements in the event that they freeze raw material in order to reprocess it later on.”
On the canning factories side, it is not the time for communication, but it seems that if consumers rush to stock up on canned food, production lines are not impacted. It is therefore above all a question of mobilising around continuity plans, in terms of staff and raw materials.
When a land pangolin collides with the international aquatic industry...
Dominique GUILLOT
Translation : Catherine ROUSSEY
