Nelson Sergerie, LJI
GASPÉ – The Avignon and Côte-de-Gaspé MRCs are promoting agriculture within their respective territories.
The Côte-de-Gaspé is launching a promotional campaign featuring video clips to showcase the 16 agricultural businesses in the area.
“When doing the experiment, people can’t name two or three. We’re now at almost 17 businesses in production or startup,” emphasizes Olivier Deruelle, social development mobilization officer for the Côte-de-Gaspé MRC. In addition to Produits Tapp’s sauerkraut, two beef producers, four market gardeners, five fruit growers, flower growers, and processors of seaweed, mushrooms, wild herbs, honey, and maple syrup are spread across the territory.
“What we would like is for people to get to know the people in the community to create a sense of trust and build loyalty in their purchases from producers and then from grocery stores, and not the other way around,” says Mr. Deruelle.
The Côte-de-Gaspé region lost 42% of its agriculture producers between 1993 and 2017. “Since then, we’ve managed to stop the hemorrhage and are even experiencing slight growth. They’re not all large businesses, but it’s encouraging,” he emphasizes.
The MRC is also focused on developing short supply chains, which reduces greenhouse gas emissions. “We would like a more local, more fair, and more sustainable food system,” says Mr. Deruelle.
For its part, the Avignon MRC has launched its third Agricultural Zone Development Plan.
“It’s an important sector for the MRC, vital, and it’s a sector we’ve wanted to promote for several years,” says Mathieu Lapointe, Prefect and Mayor of Carleton-sur-Mer.
The first plan was unveiled in 2017, and despite this, developing new businesses remains a challenge.
“Regarding uncultivated land, it was a major concern a dozen years ago. It still is today, but much less so. New production has been added, and fields that weren’t cultivated are now being cultivated,” notes Mr. Lapointe.
In total, the Avignon MRC has 60 agricultural businesses. The western part of the territory primarily features livestock producers, while the eastern part is dominated by market gardening.
Maple production is also very present in the region. “There is significant maple potential and large businesses,” explains the prefect. Convincing Quebec to allow new taps remains a major challenge.
“We have producers who want to expand onto public lands. We are working with them. The MRC owns intermunicipal lots. We want to ensure that the maple potential on our lots is protected. The same goes for public lands. We are raising awareness within the ministry. Even if there is no maple production, we want to ensure that the maple potential in the region is maintained and increased for future businesses,” explains the prefect.
The MRC has set itself a major goal to achieve. “The idea is to support our businesses. We want to promote them. What we would like to do in the long term is for people to become more aware of our businesses, to help them, and to support them,” says Mr. Lapointe.
To help market local products, a traveling public market will be set up.