French oyster farming industry faces fresh plague crisis

Farmers have been watching in dismay in recent weeks as the virus once again moved northwards, keeping pace with the rising sea temperature, according to BBC News.

In 2008 and 2009, the industry was ravaged by the same epidemic, with many farms losing 80-100 per cent of their stocks of naissains - first-year spats.

Because it takes three years to grow a commercially viable oyster, so far the economic impact of the crisis has been limited..

But now all pre-2008 production has been depleted, so major shortages are predicted next winter when demand peaks around Christmas and New Year. In France that is when some 90 per cent of oysters are sold, the news source reports.

The state marine research agency (Ifremer) said it is "one of the worst crises in the history of French oyster-farming".

Last month hundreds of farmers staged a much-publicised protest in central Paris, dumping lorry-loads of oyster-shells on one of the Seine river bridges.

Their pressure paid off, because the French government has now promised a 150m euro rescue package to tide the industry through the next three years, BBC News said.