The Jersey Oyster Company was formed in 1973 as Le Socit de Produits Ostricole Jerrais, the company has farmed shellfish on the East coast of the island since those early days.

 

In the summer of 1998 the running of the company was taken over by 3 partners: Stephen Luce, John Le Seelleur and Christopher Le Masurier, who had been looking at oyster production as a future business for some time. They were in a position to take over an existing concern, rather than start operations from scratch and eventually bought out all the shares in the Company in June 1999. In 2001 Mr Le Seelleur retired and the remaining two directors now run the Company.

 

Since 1999 the Company has undergone an intensive expansion programme, bringing back into production a second area at Le Hocq, and taking on another 2 large concession areas at Le Hurel. This brought the total area farmed to 26 hectares within four concession areas. The output has increased dramatically as a result of this expansion. The Company is now the largest oyster growing company in Great Britain according to The Shellfish Association of Great Britain.

 

Last year the Company exported 420 tonnes of oysters into France, of which approximately 50 tonnes were marketed under the Jersey brand. More than 150 tonnes of mussels are sold locally to the fish markets in Jersey and Guernsey each year.

 

During 2001, we also created an area for growing Bouchot mussels (mussels grown on upright wooden poles) beyond our main oyster area. We have 3000 poles on the beach which yield approximately 30 kilos of mussels each. In 2003 we exported seven and a half tonne as part of our initial trials. In the summer of 2004, we sold all our Bouchot mussels locally as part of a campaign to increase awareness of local produce. We continue to supply our "own grown" mussels every year.