Two of the west's best oyster growers will miss the opportunity to vote in the presidential election on Thursday. They will be in the Irish College in Paris to launch the Irish oyster season in France.
The chairman of Clew Bay Oyster Co-operative, Mr Michael Molloy, and Mr Daniel Gallagher, of Atlanfish in Lough Swilly, will also visit oyster farms at Marennes, in the south of France, and in Normandy and Brittany.
The Clew Bay co-operative was recently awarded a £1,000 prize for the best native oyster in the annual Bord Iascaigh Mhara-Guinness oyster awards. Atlanfish won a similar prize for the best gigas or Pacific oyster.
In recent years, oyster cultivation in the State has grown steadily, with "exponential" growth in gigas production, according to BIM. Cultivation of the gigas oyster began in the early 1970s in UCG's shellfish laboratory in Carna, Co Galway. Since then, 250 growers in 11 counties have taken it up, producing 50 million oysters last year.
Oyster consumption in France reaches its peak between now and Christmas. By next January, millions of Irish oysters will have found their way past many a refined French palate.