Stocks of French oysters have been decimated by the OsVH-1 Oyster Herpesvirus, which is also known in France as “La Mortality.”
The disease destroyed nearly 80 per cent of the country’s “young stock” of oysters last year. Overall production fell from 130,000 metric tons in 2009 to 80,000 metric tons last year.
The shortage has forced French suppliers and caterers to “plunder” Britain’s stocks, experts say.
The increase in demand has pushed the price of British oysters up by around 30 per cent. Rock oysters in the UK have risen to between GBP .40 (USD .64, EUR .50) and GBP .65 (USD 1.04, EUR .81) each over the last year while “native” oysters cost up to GBP 1.25 each, according to the Fish2fork website.
The price rise is good news for fishermen but bad news for consumers.
John Bates, who runs Seasalter Shellfish in Kent, said that the French are “buying up as much as they can” from the UK, despite just 1,200 metric tons being farmed here each year.
Bates estimates that up to a fifth of all oysters produced in the UK are heading across the channel.
