Illustration of potatoes. - Witt / SIPA

  • A collective of local residents is campaigning to prevent the Belgian potato processing company, Clarebout, from installing a factory near Dunkirk (North).
  • The inhabitants fear odor and noise nuisance, but also on water resources.
  • This factory project is part of the current potato overproduction crisis.

Northerners say "No to frying!" " A collective, notably of local residents, is campaigning, via social networks, to prevent the Belgian potato processing company, Clarebout, from installing a factory between the municipalities of Saint-Georges-sur-l'Aa and Wormhout, near Dunkirk (North).

This factory plans to operate 24 hours a day to produce 1,400 tonnes of frozen fries or other specialties daily. The result is 320 jobs, but also the reluctance of residents who fear odor, noise and water pollution.

About 2 million m3 of water per year

"While climate change is accentuating drought episodes, including in our region, EELV fears competition for access to water between industrial needs and the needs of inhabitants", assures the environmentalist party, in a press release.

Because the consumption of the factory will be around 2 million m3 of water per year and the treatment plant which must be next to the building must treat a pollution of about 600,000 equivalent inhabitants.

Questioned by France 3, the Belgian company gives guarantees. Regarding water pollution, she claims to have imagined a plan to recover and transform virtuous water using non-potable water from the canal. For air, the company promises that cooking fumes will not be released outside the factory, but treated inside the walls.

A “cyclical” situation

In December 2019, the environmental authority also estimated that "detailed studies" of Clarebout showed "impacts on air, noise and human health well controlled". But this project is part of a new economic context: the crisis of overproduction of potatoes.

With the containment linked to the Covid-19 epidemic, 400,000 tonnes remain on the arms of French patatiers. A situation that the Chamber of Agriculture of Nord-Pas-de-Calais deems "cyclical" and hopes to see improvement quickly.

“We are in favor of setting up this factory because there has been a sharp increase in frozen food production in Europe for twenty years, and it is the first time that an industrialist has crossed the border from Belgium to France , explains Christian Durlin, President of the Chamber. So, rather than seeing our potatoes crossing the border to be processed in Belgium, we might as well do it here. "

"We have to adapt the evolution of consumption"

An analysis that does not share an activist, contacted by 20 Minutes . “The quantity of potatoes needed for this plant represents almost half of the consumption production in Nord-Pas-de-Calais and will require using almost 50% of the cultivated area of ​​the Flanders Dunkirk territory. In addition, it is in contradiction with the commitment of the Urban Community of Dunkirk in favor of organic farming and short local supply chains, ”she denounces.

“We have to adapt to the evolution of consumption which favors frozen food. The potato has a high added value. It would be dangerous to question your culture, ”says Christian Durlin.

The public inquiry into the Clarebout project, which was relaunched on April 29 during containment, ended last week. The collective "No to frying in Saint-Georges-sur-l'Aa" announces the deposit of 800 contributions, of which about three-quarters were unfavorable to the project. It remains for the investigating commissioner to give her opinion around mid-June.

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  • Covid 19
  • Lille
  • Environment
  • Food industry
  • Agriculture
  • Fries