A salt worker harvests salt in a salt marsh in Saint-Clément-des-Baleines, at the western tip of Ile de Ré, in western France, on September 15, 2023 (AFP/Christophe ARCHAMBAULT)
In a marsh on the Île de Ré, a salt worker gathers the white crystals formed on the clayey bottom into small pyramids. Last harvest of a season marked by the battle over organic salt before the European authorities.
“It looks like a quarrel between bell towers but it is our economic model that is at stake,” slips Louis Merlin, “simoussi” – local name for the traditional raking tool – in his hands, in the lapping water which sparkles under the first rays of the sun.
Far from the tumult caused in recent months by the definition of specifications for the organic certification of salt, recognized as a mining product and not a food product. On July 11, the European Parliament rejected a draft “delegated act” from the Commission which was opposed by the sector’s industry.
A traditional raking tool placed on a crust of salt in a salt marsh in Saint-Clément-des-Baleines, on the western tip of Ile de Ré, in western France, on September 15, 2023 (AFP/ Christophe ARCHAMBAULT)
The Brussels text was hardly to their advantage: it excluded several production and processing techniques, including the explosive extraction of mine salt, the refining of salt and its recrystallization after dissolution.
After the “no” from MEPs, it is now up to each Member State to establish its own specifications. A “completely ludicrous” situation for Louis Merlin, who farms around ten hectares in the west of the island. “We will end up with a label based on potentially 27 national regulations,” he laments.
– Deception –
Not to mention possible consumer deception.
“Under the same label we will have the most natural sea salts possible, harvested in an ancestral way, with elbow grease; and rock or salt salts harvested mechanically, containing products prohibited for organic in France but authorized elsewhere” , adds the one who chairs the association of Relais producers, with around a hundred members.
A salt worker harvests salt in a salt marsh in Saint-Clément-des-Baleines, at the western tip of Ile de Ré, in western France, on September 15, 2023 (AFP/Christophe ARCHAMBAULT)
Another distortion of competition is seasonality: Atlantic salts are harvested from June to September, thanks to the sun and the wind after evaporation, while rock salt is produced all year round.
The production of these “Petits Poucets” counts for a grain of salt on the French plate: of the 200,000 tonnes consumed in France, only 25,000 come from the Atlantic marshes.
In total, these account for less than 0.4% of French salt production, mainly used for snow removal or in the chemical industry, according to the French Association of Atlantic Sea Salt Producers (AFPS) which brings together 600 artisans.
“We are embroiled in a story that we would have liked to do without, our 100% natural product did not need this unnatural labeling,” complains Hugues Leprince, president of the Rais salt workers cooperative.
– Pragmatism –
In France, a working group of the National Committee for Organic Agriculture, under the leadership of the National Institute of Origin and Quality (Inao), must define specifications. Which could be modeled on the Commission’s text, according to sources interviewed by AFP.
Packets of coarse sea salt being packaged at the Coopérative des Sauniers de l’Ile de Re in Ars-en-Re, on the western tip of Ile de Re, western France, on September 15 2023 (AFP/Christophe ARCHAMBAULT)
If this label appears to be “very imperfect”, salt producers (producers located in the south of the Loire) and salt workers (in the north) will request approval out of “realism and commercial pragmatism”, it is explained: they anticipate a demand in the food industry – in biscuits, rusks, bakeries or for the manufacture of ready meals, chips and other preserves.
“A distributor already offers organic Spanish salt on the French market, we have to move quickly,” underlines Tanguy Ménoret, producer in Guérande (Loire-Atlantique) and president of the AFPS, pointing out the risk of being overtaken by foreign industrialists – and to be “the turkeys of the joke”.
“In the end, it is the large-scale distribution that wins: between two organic labels, it will always choose the cheapest product,” agrees Véronique Richez-Lerouge, departmental councilor for Île de Ré.
A salt worker holds fleur de sel in front of a pile of coarse sea salt in a salt marsh in Saint-Clément-des-Baleines, on the western tip of Ile de Ré, western France, on September 15 2023 (AFP/Christophe ARCHAMBAULT)
“We will not go headlong, we will see how the market reacts,” says Hugues Leprince, who wants to “trust the consumer”.
Relais producers are counting on their “valorization and diversification” approach, started in 2009 with a request for a protected geographical indication (PGI), like the Guérande salt marshes.
The island has just organized a festival, “Fleur de sel”, to illustrate the know-how of salt workers. The method of recovering this white gold is at the heart of a dispute with other French production areas. Another fight to fight.
© 2023 AFP
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