• At the head of the Agriloops start-up, two people from Rennes are embarking on the local production of prawns.

  • For this, they rely on aquaponics, a system combining aquaculture and market gardening.

  • Their system also makes it possible to grow cherry tomatoes and mesclun with salt water enriched with prawn droppings.

The French consume it en masse, around 100,000 tonnes each year.

As appetizing as they are, shrimp are also a danger to the planet.

Imported for the most part from Asia or Central America, these farmed crustaceans threaten the ecosystem in these countries by destroying the mangrove forests.

Faced with the ecological emergency, the lines are starting to move with certain players who wish to relocate production to France.

This is the case of the Rennes start-up Agriloops, launched in 2016 by two former students of the Institut Agro Rennes-Angers.

To locally produce prawns, which are large prawns, Jérémie Cognard and Romain Vandame rely on aquaponics, a system combining aquaculture and market gardening.

In their pilot farm located on their former campus in Rennes, the two engineers raise prawns in a pond.

They then recover the effluents which are transformed into fertilizers to grow fruit and vegetables in the premises next door.

"We therefore limit external contributions by drawing on natural resources", underlines Jérémie Cognard.

Several tens of tons per year

Thanks to this aquaponics system in a salty environment, a concept still unheard of in Europe, Agriloops produces "French prawns, ultra-fresh and sustainable" as well as cherry tomatoes and mesclun.

Two products that adapt very well to the salt water that irrigates them.

"It's very interesting from a nutritional and taste point of view," says the engineer.

Our tomatoes are sweeter, fleshier and richer in vitamin C.”

After developing their technology for many months, testing its performance and giving their products a taste of restaurateurs, fishmongers and wholesalers, the two young entrepreneurs now want to move up a gear and start the industrial production and marketing of their Breton prawns.

This will be done on a 1.5 hectare commercial farm whose construction should start after the summer in Bréal-sous-Montfort, south-west of Rennes.

When it opens in 2023, it should be able to produce several tens of tonnes of prawns and fruit and vegetables per year.

Other planned farms in metropolitan areas

Baptized Mangrove #1, the farm will also serve as a demonstrator because the two friends and associates plan to grow others in the long term.

"We want to set up a network of farms around major cities in France and Europe in order to produce prawns as close as possible to the consumer," says Jérémie Cognard.

For this, Agriloops can count on the support of France Relance and the BPI, which have contributed three million euros to the project.

The start-up, which has a dozen employees, is also preparing a new fundraiser “of several million euros”.

Company

Avian flu: Is France heading for a shortage of poultry or eggs?

Planet

War in Ukraine: Will Breton agriculture deny its ecological transition to produce more?

  • Planet

  • Agriculture

  • Breeding

  • Fish

  • reindeer

  • start-up

  • Brittany

  • Relocation