Le Guilvinec (France) (AFP)

Production and prices halved: the health crisis hit fishermen hard. But in Brittany, the leading French fishing region, the sector quickly organized itself in an attempt to stabilize the market.

"The day of confinement, we had to return. It was the first time in 27 years that we had made a tide at zero euros." Bruno Charrier, boss-fisherman, takes out of his hold a cloth on his shoulder. While his sailors unload the fish at the auction in Guilvinec (Finistère), he says: "For 15 days, we stopped the activity, and since we started again, the intake is too much. Last week, out of 4.8 tonnes of fish, we had 1.1 tonnes of unsold fish. "

With the closure of restaurants and communities, demand fell, and the value of the fishery collapsed. "Right now, we sell fish on average at 2.7 euros (per kilo), against 3.5 euros usually. For sole, it's even 7 euros against 20 usually", laments the fisherman .

"Almost all the French auctions have experienced a drop in their production and the value of their production of around 50% during confinement," said Pascal Le Floc'h, an economist specializing in the sector, to AFP. maritime and which studied the forty French auctions during containment.

The closing of the international markets, notably Spanish and Italian, also contributed, according to him, to the crisis of the sector, in particular in Brittany, region which counts the most auctions with 13 against only four in the Mediterranean.

"Breton fishermen are much more dependent on auction sales," analyzes the university. "They seem to have suffered more than those in other regions which are better suited to other forms of marketing, such as short circuits and sales with a contract, over the counter."

"We concentrate 50% of French fishing and 70% of French fishing flows. When the market is unstable, it becomes a weakness, we no longer have control," notes Olivier Le Nezet, president of the regional fisheries committee for Brittany and the Breizhmer association which brings together the actors of the Breton fishing and aquaculture sector.

The health crisis has therefore pushed the Breton industry to urgently introduce new tools capable of better regulating the market.

- "a little better" -

"Everyone talked and exchanged views to see what could be done to stabilize the market," said Olivier Le Nezet. Since Monday, a supply forecasting system has made it possible to better regulate supply and demand.

A similar tool has existed for two years at the national level. Called Prevapport, it gives real-time forecasts of inflows under French auctions. But, according to professionals in the sector, it is not precise enough nor sufficiently supplied.

"A forecast for one day or two days is not enough for large buyers so we have implemented a new application on the Breton scale which identifies the products that will be for sale tomorrow and the day after but also those which are still in the holds of the ships and which will be sold for four or five days ", explains Yves Guirriec, director of the fishing ports of Côtes-d'Armor.

"The analysis is finer and the visibility better," says Loïg Chesnais-Girard, president of the Brittany region, who is committed to supporting the system. "At least with this tool the large distribution will not be able to say that it did not know there was fish", which will avoid international purchases, underlines the elected official.

"The prices were very, very bad until the end of last week. Yesterday and today (Wednesday) it seemed a little better", notes Jacques Pichon, director of armaments La Houle in Saint-Guénolé, near of Guilvinec.

The regional fisheries committee of Brittany, like the national committee, however, ask the State to continue supporting the sector until the end of September.

© 2020 AFP