A small company in inland Brittany is getting a big boost for an idea aimed at cleaning up one of commercial fishing’s messier corners: bait.
Nutri-Future, based in Loudéac in France’s Côtes-d’Armor department, has won a Blue Award for “Appétit,” a locally made, bio-based fishing bait designed to be fully biodegradable and tailored for trap-and-pot fishers—known in France as caseyeurs, who work with baited pots and traps.
The professional bait market “isn’t known for its environmental track record,” the project’s backers argue. Nutri-Future says Appétit is meant to challenge that status quo with a product that reduces waste and potential harm to marine ecosystems.
A bait built with Brittany’s fishing industry, not apart from it
Nutri-Future’s pitch is rooted in collaboration rather than a lab-only approach. The company developed Appétit with several local partners, including the Regional Fisheries Committee of Brittany (Comité régional des pêches de Bretagne), an industry body that represents and organizes parts of the region’s fishing sector.
Crucially, the end users—trap-and-pot fishers—were included in the process, giving the project what supporters describe as immediate on-the-ground credibility.
Appétit’s two-part promise—bio-based and biodegradable—targets a practical problem: conventional baits can generate waste and add pressure on marine ecosystems. Nutri-Future also frames local production as a way to reduce reliance on outside supplies, a “sovereignty” argument that resonates in an industry exposed to supply-chain disruptions.
What the Blue Award win signals for Brittany’s “blue economy” push
The Blue Award recognizes maritime and environmentally oriented innovations intended to advance the “blue economy.” By winning, Nutri-Future is being positioned among Brittany companies to watch in the fishing supply chain.
That spotlight is notable given Loudéac’s profile. The town is better known for its agri-food industry than for the sea, yet it now hosts a company developing products aimed at working ports—an example, supporters say, of how fishing-industry innovation can emerge away from the coastline when partnerships are built effectively.
Nutri-Future expects the prize to help raise Appétit’s commercial visibility with maritime cooperatives and producer organizations. The next hurdle is industrial: moving from an award-winning prototype to a bait available at the scale of Brittany’s fishing fleets.
