French oyster farmers face miserable festive season

 But instead, December's oyster consumption has been blighted by the return of a seasonal menace: rustling, the Guardian reported. Normandy oyster producers in Calvados revealed that thieves had stolen 8 tonnes of oysters worth €25,000 (£21,700) in three weeks in November and December.The oyster community there suspects that organised gangs or local people with insider knowledge struck in the shallow waters after dark at low tide, when the beds of oysters maturing for Christmas platters can be easily seen and accessed from the beach.The French are the biggest producers of oysters in Europe and fourth in the world behind China, Japan and South Korea, turning out 130,000 tonnes a year and eating almost all of it themselves. The oyster industry generates more than €1bn (£866m) in sales each year. Three quarters of the trade is done at Christmas and New Year. "You'd have to have a lot of knowhow to pull off oyster raids on this scale," said Joseph Costard, head of the Normandy shellfish farmers committee to the Guardian.In recent years, pre-Christmas oyster raids have become so common that gendarmes in the major production areas have set up water and helicopter patrols to spot strange movements near oyster beds at night.