It was at a Guinness and oyster evening in the Guinness Storehouse that Irish Country Living first met the Harty family. Shucking the oysters with an ease of hand that had evidently been perfected over the years, Shay Harty caught our attention. “Have you tried our Dungarvan oysters, lads?” he asked, as we made our way over. “Go au naturel. Now try them with a few crispy onions. Adds a real crunch, doesn’t it?”

This man knew an oyster lover when he saw one – and within minutes, we were deep in conversation, getting the family history, complete with an invitation to the oyster farm in Ring, just outside Dungarvan.

This is where we found ourselves on a spring morning, watching the waves crash in on the stunning east coast. Looking out at the beautiful bay, you would think it was natural for a shellfish business to be in operation, but that wasn’t always the way. When Jim Harty first started working the land in his younger years, he was following on from his father as the 6th generation dairy farmer.

“It was natural for me to follow course,” says Jim, the father of the family, “but I suppose with our farm being right beside the sea, I used to look out and wonder if there could be other potential. Then back in the 1980s, I was at a seminar in Cork and a guy started talking about shellfish farming. He only spoke for 10 minutes but it hit a pin. So I looked into it further and got onto BIM, who were a huge help, and we started from there.”

What was the market like back then? “Ah, there was no market,” he laughs. “And there were very few people doing shellfish. It was all about salmon.”

So, to say it was a bit of a gamble is an understatement, is it Jim? “Ah, yeah, everyone thought I was a bit mad. I still am a bit mad, to be honest.”

A bit mad or not, Jim Harty is far smarter than he makes out. That – and he had a bit of luck on his side. “At the start, we put down about 50,000 oyster seeds. They just took off, though. We couldn’t stop them growing. Now we put down about 15 million a year.

“What we didn’t know at the time was that it was that the waters of Ring were made to grow oysters. Pure, fresh water and a temperature that suits the shellfish. We can grow oysters here year round, while other places in the country can’t.

“Compared to the temperature of the water in Donegal, for example, we would be about four or five degrees higher, which can make a big difference. We can drive out to the beach in five minutes and bring back 10 tonne of oysters in every tractor. Whereas other places you would need boats.”

pearls of wisdom

It’s all good to have a site that is perfect for growing oysters, but if there was nobody to buy them, what’s the point? “France. The market in France was when it all happened for us. The French love their oysters, but they were having fierce difficulty growing them – mortality, mortality, mortality.

“In 1990, a French company came over, interested in our operation. They wanted a market share of the company. They had the market and the expertise, so we decided to go into business with them.

“In hindsight, it was the best thing because we got their expertise. They said it would take 12 years for us to learn how to produce quality oysters properly. I think we had a very good handle on it within six.”

The business continued to grow steadily, and at one stage Harty Oysters were sending over 600 tonne a year to France. As the business grew, so too did the team, and they are now the largest employer in Ring, employing 30 people on a full-time basis as well as 10 seasonally, including Jim’s five children.

“Ah I’m retired now. My children run the business,” says Jim with a smirk that speaks volumes. This is a man we’d say will never truly retire – but officially sons Ray, Shay, Joe and daughter Anita are directors in the company.

“Shay is in charge of quality, Joe does the marketing, Anita handles logistics and Ray tries to keep control of the whole lot. Our family dairy farm is still going strong, and my son Colin manages that. They all went off to college, worked, did their own thing and then came back.”

Ray says: “I was doing accountancy in Waterford, doing a bit with Glanbia. Then dad got his two hips done, so I said I would come back for a few weeks to help out – that was 20 years ago.”

Anita laughs and adds: “I was an agricultural consultant for 10 years. I went out on maternity leave, started to help out because we were so busy and, yeah, that was it.”

forward-thinking

This strong, solid family team is forward-thinking. pairing an age-old natural product with the latest advancements in technology. With the help of technology, they went from producing 30,000 oysters in 2012 to 15 million in 2016.

Expanding their export market has been key. Ray says: “France was our key market for years, a bit to Holland and Germany, but mostly France. They had that serious mortality problem with their own oysters and we were filling that space.

“We knew they would get the situation sorted over time, but the reality is it happened very fast. It was 2014 and that summer was really hot. They had two seasons full of oysters come along at the same time, the country was full of them. They will tell you themselves, they were literally kicking oysters around the place. They didn’t need Irish oysters anymore, they just shut the door.

“Here in Ring, though, we were under serious pressure. We were paying lads every week, but nothing went out the door for the bones of nine months. And we had just put in a massively expensive purification plant.

Anita says: “So we had to hit the road to find new markets. Bord Bia played a blinder at the time, as did BIM. Asia was our aim. Joe went to seafood expos, marketing trips. We picked up a couple of small customers, then other businesses started seeing the demand – and that’s how we moved up the chain.”

With their purification plant and extremely efficient transport, a Harty Oyster can leave Dungarvan on a Monday and be served on a plate in China on Wednesday evening. “Between China, Dubai, Thailand and Vietnam, we are sending 350 tonnes of oysters a year,” says Ray.

home territory

What about the home market? “When I started out, it was nearly zero,” says Jim. “Over the years, though, it has really picked up. We would sell about five tonnes a week now in Ireland. Because of restaurants like the Shelbourne or the Cliff House promoting them and with chefs such as Paul Flynn using them in cookery demos, people are more interested and inclined to experiment. Even those who are wary will try them cooked first and then maybe the next time have them raw – and then they are hooked.”

Well, we are certainly hooked and if you are keen to try Harty Oysters, you’ll find them at the West Waterford Festival of Food, taking place in Dungarvan from 21 to 23 April. One of Ireland’s best-attended food festivals, it has a full itinerary of talks, markets, trails and foodie tours. Visit www.waterfordfestivaloffood.com for more information. CL