• The oyster companies in Marennes Oléron and Bassin d'Arcachon are looking to recruit seasonal workers for their peak of activity before the holidays.

  • The Marennes Oléron basin is organizing a forum this Tuesday, on which companies are looking for at least 850 people for two to three weeks before the end of the year holidays.

  • In the Bassin d'Arcachon, one of the main difficulties consists in housing seasonal workers, while the price of land is very high.

To cope with their annual gunshot, oyster farmers are actively looking for hands to help them sort and pack their shells.

This Tuesday, the regional shellfish committee of Marennes Oléron and the department of Charente-Maritime are organizing a forum for seasonal workers.

Companies registered at the moment are looking for 850 people for short assignments before the holidays.

In total, the Marennes Oléron basin, the leading shellfish farming basin in France, needs 4,500 seasonal workers over approximately three weeks before the shipment of the oysters which will end up on many tables for the holidays.

Recruitment difficulties have increased over the years.

To deal with this, the department of Charente-Maritime has set up for a few years a possible accumulation of a seasonal activity with up to 300 hours of RSA, so that the candidates are not losers by working two to three weeks.

This is to help companies recruit enough for this peak of activity, the most important of the year for oyster farming.

“This is an important moment, confirms Olivier Laban, president of the Arcachon Aquitaine regional shellfish farming committee (CRCAA), even if Arcachon oyster farming has diversified its way of selling these oysters a little, especially in summer with direct sales.

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Seasonal workers struggling to find accommodation

In the Bassin d'Arcachon, land is so expensive that seasonal workers struggle to find an affordable solution for housing.

“In summer, they settle down at the campsite but in winter, it's more complicated, explains Olivier Laban.

We attack early in the morning and some end up staggered in the evening, so you really have to stay nearby.

He explains that some seasonal workers arrive in motorhomes at the ports to work, often after harvesting.

Six years ago, the group of employers of sea trades (60 members out of 300 oyster farming companies) was created by Olivier Laban to find personnel to make available to oyster farming companies, according to their needs.

But the housing problem remains, which complicates recruitment: "perhaps one day we will be able to create official housing within our establishments, but for the moment the regulations do not allow us to do so", regrets the president of the CRCAA.

Recruitment tensions exist throughout the year in this sector, both for production activity in the parks and for service in the tasting cabins.

Oyster farmers in the Bassin d'Arcachon do not yet know the majority of pre-orders for the end of the year celebrations and therefore their labor needs.

The packaging of shellfish starts around December 15, but “some companies also have needs from the beginning of December to fish oysters in the beds, calibrate them, pre-wash them, before putting them in baskets”, specifies Olivier Laban.


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Arcachon basin: Sixteen tons of oysters seized on an illegal oyster farm

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