• While the winter storms are slowly receding, seaweed harvesting has resumed off the coast of Finistère.
  • More and more seagulls work to harvest marine plants before transforming them into food products increasingly demanded by individuals and renowned chefs.
  • A subsidiary of the Hénaff group, GlobeXplore presents its products at the Rennes food show.

His job straddles fishing and gathering. A seagull since 2010, David Le Chelard learned his trade "on the job". On a pile of pebbles, one might say. Former sailor, the man had the idea to start when he returned to live on the coasts of the Iroise Sea (Finistère), where he saw a handful of cracked people active on low tide. With their backs bent, knife or sickle in hand, these strange reapers were busy picking seaweed every time the sea retreated. Strange activity in a region where some green algae have such a bad reputation. Initially, they were mainly used to keep oysters fresh in their bourriche. But little by little, they have become a real dish sought after by cooks around the world.

To the point that more and more gulls are working in the area. "Ten years ago, we were only a handful but we see that there are more and more people to come and pick up. Sometimes we can be a good ten on the same spot. As we know, it's a booming market," explains David Le Chelard. Picking has just resumed after a truce imposed by winter storms. It can continue until autumn, depending on the vagaries of the Breton weather.


Like all seafaring professions, that of seagull is reputed to be demanding, physical. "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 he likes less? "On bad weather days when there is sea. It can get a bit dangerous. However, the activity remains highly regulated and each fisherman must have a license for each area and each species. David picks three or four: sea beans, dulse and royal kombu. All are then transported to southern Finistère to be washed and cooked. This former Ifremer employee now works for the company GlobeXplore, which lends him a boat.

Based in Rosporden, east of Quimper, this family business uses between 300 and 350 tons of seaweed per year. First as a 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 at CFIA, a very large agri-food exhibition held from Tuesday to Thursday in Rennes.

"She was taken for an enlightened one"

The man now manages 35 employees within the Breton company, which became in 2017 a subsidiary of the Jean Hénaff Group, which everyone knows for its pâté. Initially confidential, the culinary products business now accounts for almost all of the company's turnover. And more than a third of the products go into the catering circuit on tables often starred. For ten years, GlobeXplore has also launched into mass distribution with spreads very popular at the aperitif. "It was the supermarkets that asked for it. There is a real expectation of consumers for these natural products, "continues Antoine Ravenel. The seaweed is distributed under the brand name Algaé or Christine Le Tennier, named after the founder of the company. "When she launched in 1986, she was taken for an enlightened," concedes the leader. Thirty years later, this ultra-dynamic niche market in Asia has proved 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.


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Today, GlobeXplore uses a hundred tons of seaweed per year for the manufacture of its culinary products. Can the multiplication of competitors on this market lead to fears of plundering of the resource? The leader 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 regulated and there are regulations. It is only collected in areas considered "organic" where 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 set up an algae culture to continue to grow. The Breton sector is working on it," says Antoine Ravenel. Today, only wakame is grown in Brittany. The seaweed native to Japan could well serve as an example for the entire sector, which seeks to develop without plundering its resource.

  • Algae
  • Feeding
  • Food
  • Sea
  • Fishing
  • Agriculture
  • Food
  • Quimper
  • Brittany
  • Society