2024-01-05 17:50:25
A first helping hand, while waiting for better, to save businesses. Oyster farmers in the Arcachon basin, deprived of sales during the New Year due to food poisoning, will benefit from tax relief from the State while awaiting a request for compensation from the Union European, the prefecture announced on Friday.
Received by the prefect of Gironde and Nouvelle-Aquitaine Étienne Guyot, the representatives of the sector estimated at 7 million euros the turnover lost since the prefectural ban pronounced on December 27, including 5 million euros of shortfall in terms of gross margin.
VIDEO. Ban on the sale of oysters: “A sledgehammer” for this oyster farmer from the Arcachon basin
The State will “ensure that companies which may encounter cash flow difficulties, social or tax difficulties are taken into consideration and supported”, declared Prefect Guyot to the press. No penalties for late payment of taxes or charges should be applied. Partial unemployment measures will be possible.
The prefect said he was aiming for a lifting of the ban on January 19 “provided that the analyzes are favorable”. In the medium term, a “solid file” must be assembled by the State to obtain authorization from the European Commission to create a compensation scheme, he said.
300 companies concerned
“There is no framework, that’s the whole difficulty,” reacted Olivier Laban, president of the Arcachon Aquitaine Regional Shellfish Farming Committee (CRCAA) and oyster farmer in Gujan-Mestras. “This is where my concern remains. Everything has to be built. »
The approximately 300 oyster farming companies in Arcachon were hit hard by this ban just before New Year’s Eve, a period when consumption is traditionally very high.
Analyzes revealed the presence of norovirus, responsible for gastroenteritis, in Arcachon but also in Calvados, Manche and Vendée. On Friday, the Landes prefecture in turn issued a ban order for Lake Hossegor.
Public Health France recorded last week a “sudden high in medical activity” linked to acute gastroenteritis in New Aquitaine. Contaminations are now in a “deceleration” phase, specifies the prefecture.
According to Arcachon oyster farmers, the sanitation system on the banks of the Basin, overwhelmed by the heavy rainfall in the fall, is to blame. Adeba, an association chaired by former CRCAA leader Thierry Lafon, announced that it had filed a complaint on December 29 against the intercommunal union responsible for sanitation. The prefect of Gironde must bring together the communities concerned next week to “accelerate” investments in wastewater management.
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