For the sale, traders imported their molds from Belgium. An unprecedented gamble in the face of the usual hegemony of Dutch producers.
The Lille flea market, which will be launched this Saturday, September 14, will offer some new items on the menu. This year, traders have imported their mussels from Belgium, while the vast majority of imports remain dominated by the Netherlands and Zeeland.
“We have our own culture”
Despite strong winds and currents which could have condemned the production of the mollusc, the first harvest was a nice surprise for Belgium.
“There was no commercial mussel farming in Belgium, so all the mussels in Belgium come mainly from the Netherlands, I think 93 or 94% of the mussels we eat come from the Netherlands but now we have our own culture here so I hope some people will also eat Belgian mussels,” Stjin Van Hoestenberghe, operational manager of the marine mussel farm in Nieuwpoort in Belgium, told BFM Grand Lille.
In Belgium, the Colruyt company intends to compete with the Zeeland mussel. In Brussels, this new product attracts curiosity with a hint of scepticism. “If we can have contacts here in Belgium, yes we are interested, as long as the quantity is monitored”, underlines Jean-Philippe Bosman, owner of the restaurant Le Roy d’Espagne in Brussels.
By 2025, the Nieuwpoort aquaculture farm plans to produce around 200 tonnes of mussels per year. A number that corresponds to 1% of annual Belgian consumption.
Livia Santana with Arthus Vaillant
