Maria Nieves Castejon Camargue Coquillages“Camargue Coquillages” started in 2000. Before that, Franck Castejon, my husband, was a shellfish picker. I was working in Spain, where I was in charge of a company marketing seafood products. He was one of our suppliers and that’s how we met. I arrived in the Camargue, in Port-Saint-Louis-du-Rhône. We started up our company and began building a pond for shellfish purification. We work with countries like Spain, Belgium, Holland, etc.
Since we work with the sea, that’s what is important for us in Provence. The sea in which we live every day and that we want to protect with our resources.
If there is an ideal shellfish, it has to be the oyster. Oysters, and of course ours which are also organic, are the pearl of Camargue! Eat them raw as we do in the morning when we go down to the sea: fresh out of the water, they’re incredible!
We work in a really fragile environment. We’ve seen the evolution of the sea and how the climate is changing. We wanted to adapt to the environment rather than the contrary. We wanted to set up an organic farm, to be able to work in harmony with nature and our values. Where virtuous practices are concerned, we’ve set up a whole recycling system. We recycle all the ropes, nets, plastics and pieces of wood. We’ve set up a partnership with a Spanish company and they make spectacle frames with all our leftover plastic. The result of recycling is real!
If I had to summarize Provence in one word… That’s a bit difficult! But in two words: nature and wild.
We’ve set up a farm visit. A good opportunity to discover all aspects of oyster farming. It ends with a great tasting. We hope you’ll come and discover it.
Camargue stands out !
While diving at Port-Saint-Louis-du-Rhône in November 2023, Daniel Castejon, the son of Maria Nieves Castejon, made an absolutely unexpected discovery: a giant oyster over 30 cm long and weighing 2.360 kg! That’s 60 grams more than the largest oyster in the world known at the time, discovered in Brittany, in the Finistère region. Daniel Castejon, who explained that he had initially mistaken it for a rock, decided to put it back in the water before having it certified. But a few days later, another surprising discovery was made in the Camargue, again at Port-Saint-Louis-du-Rhône! Two oyster farmers caught another giant oyster measuring 34.5 cm, just beating Daniel Castejon’s record. According to him, it’s the quality of the Camargue biotope, which is distinguished by the presence of fresh water from the Rhône, that explains such records. As you now know, the best oysters in the world are found in Provence!
