His job straddles the line between fishing and gathering. Goemonier since 2010, David Le Chelard learned his trade “on the job”. On a pile of stones, you might say. A former sailor, the man had the idea to get started when he returned to live on the coast of the Iroise Sea (Finistère), where he saw a handful of cracked people bustling about at low tide. bent over, knife or sickle in hand, these strange reapers bustled about picking seaweed each time the tide receded. Strange activity in an area where certain green-colored algae have such a bad reputation. Initially, they were mainly used to keep the freshness of oysters in their basket. But little by little, they have become a real delicacy sought after by cooks all over the world.
So much so that more and more seaweed harvesters are working in the area. “Ten years ago, we were only a handful but we see that there are more and more people coming to pick up. Sometimes, there can be a good dozen on the same spot. We know it’s a booming market,” explains David Le Chelard. Picking has just resumed after a truce imposed by winter storms. It could continue until autumn, depending on the vagaries of the Breton weather.
Like all sea trades, that of seaweed harvester is reputed to be physically demanding. “You have to be brave and not cautious, but it’s not very complicated. What does he appreciate? “Freedom, contact with nature, proximity to the sea.” And what does he like less? “On bad weather days when there is sea. It can get a bit dangerous. However, the activity remains very supervised and each fisherman must have a license for each zone and each species. David picks three or four: the sea bean, the dulse and the royal kombu. All are then transported to southern Finistère to be washed and cooked. This former Ifremer employee now works for GlobeXplore companywho lends him a boat.
Based in Rosporden, east of Quimper, this family business uses between 300 and 350 tonnes of seaweed per year. First as decoration for oyster farmers and fishmongers, before the activity refocused on food products for restaurants and grocery stores. “We have developed recipes with great chefs. What we are looking for is to sublimate the product, to make it attractive”, explains Antoine Ravenel. His company will present its latest innovations on the occasion of the CFIAa very large agri-food show which takes place from Tuesday to Thursday in Rennes.
“She was taken for an enlightened”
The man now manages 35 employees within the Breton company, which in 2017 became a subsidiary of the Jean Hénaff Group, which everyone knows for its pâté. Initially confidential, the culinary products business now represents almost all of the company’s turnover. And more than a third of the products go into the catering circuit on often starred tables. For ten years, GlobeXplore has also launched into mass distribution with spreads that are very popular as an aperitif. “It was the supermarkets that requested it. There is a real consumer expectation for these natural products,” continues Antoine Ravenel. The seaweed is distributed under the Algaé or Christine Le Tennier brand, named after the company’s founder. “When she started in 1986, she was taken for an enlightened”, concedes the leader. Thirty years later, this ultra-dynamic niche market in Asia has proven him right and GlobeXplore is posting double-digit growth. “And we’re not going to stop there,” promises Antoine Ravenel, who is betting big on the “pearls of flavor” developed by the research and development departments.
Today, the GlobeXplore company uses a hundred tons of seaweed a year to manufacture its culinary products. Can the proliferation of competitors on this market raise fears of the plundering of the resource? The manager wants to be reassuring. “Brittany has the largest seaweed field in Europe. It’s a bit like a mushroom corner. Everyone has their own, even if it remains very supervised and there are regulations. We only pick up in areas considered “organic” where the water quality criteria are the highest. »
The Breton SME knows however that it will have to develop culture so as not to exhaust the wild deposit. “With cosmetics and food, demand will increase. We will need to establish an algae culture to continue to develop. The Breton sector is working on it, ”assumes Antoine Ravenel. Today, only wakame is grown in Brittany. The seaweed from Japan could well serve as an example for the entire sector, which seeks to develop without plundering its resource.