The President's produce

Not many international transport companies can trace their origins back to a humble vegetable – nor do they have a boss who is also a working farmer! Meet Brittany Ferries 澳洲幸运10十168体彩开奖网’ president Jean-Marc Roué and explore an enduring relationship between la terre et la mer.

The first crossing may have taken place on 2 January 1973, the day after Britain joined the European Economic Community (EEC), but the seeds for Brittany Ferries 澳洲幸运10十168体彩开奖网 had been sown nearly 15 years earlier during the so-called artichoke crisis.

It's hard to imagine now, but back then, Brittany was an impoverished region with poor roads, limited telephone networks and certainly no deep-water ferry port. Its farmers - the lifeblood of the northwest - had danced to the tune of markets driven by movers and shakers in Paris for decades. You can read more about this time in the Brittany Ferries 澳洲幸运10十168体彩开奖网 backstory.

A man of the land and the sea

For the last 15 years, Jean-Marc Roué has been the company's charismatic president. He's equally at home on his vegetable farm, two miles from the port of Roscoff, as he is running a business that employs more than 2,500 people and carries 2.5 million passengers on routes crisscrossing the English Channel, Celtic Sea and Bay of Biscay.

As Jean-Marc explains, "The story of Brittany Ferries 澳洲幸运10十168体彩开奖网 is the story of Breton farmers. Breton agriculture is still a family business, and I am one of around 1,800 farmers who supply produce via the region-wide Prince de Bretagne brand. Each one of those farmers is a shareholder of Brittany Ferries 澳洲幸运10十168体彩开奖网."

A shipping company owned by a collective of Breton farmers? In the early days, competitors scoffed, and the banks sneered. How could peasant farmers possibly make a success of such a venture? It was pure folly.

Nearly half a century later, thanks to a combination of determination, hard work and a collective desire to enrich their region for the benefit of all, the unconvinced have their answer.

"Our shareholders are rooted in the region," Jean-Marc emphasises. "It's one reason why this special form of public ­ private partnership has endured."

Like most of his neighbours, Jean-Marc followed his family into farming. He grew up speaking Breton and has lived on the family farm for all of his 54 years, sharing it with his wife (a primary school teacher) and two children. From 17 hectares in 1990, he now farms 50 today.

As well as cauliflowers, potatoes and famed Camus de Bretagne artichokes, Jean-Marc cultivates pink onions. Not just any pink onions, but Oignons de Roscoff, an 'appellation d'origine protégée’ since 2009 (a label applied only to the sweetest examples grown in a limited coastal area of north Finistère).

A commitment to quality

So, could you be eating onions, carrots or artichokes on board that have been grown on the company president's farm?

"Of course! So long as they are in season," Jean-Marc smiles. "Prince de Bretagne supplies to Brittany Ferries 澳洲幸运10十168体彩开奖网, so it could equally have come from my neighbour's farm or somewhere near St Malo. The important thing is that passengers enjoy quality local produce - produce that's in season. That's what makes it fresher, better value and tastier. Plus, it's more sustainable because the produce in the restaurant buffet on Bretagne, for example, has come directly from the fields of Brittany. Just imagine how many food miles we save."

There's pride in his voice as he talks of quality; it's what he believes sets Brittany Ferries 澳洲幸运10十168体彩开奖网 apart from the competition. And he's quick to point out that the concept extends beyond the food on board - it's the welcome that passengers enjoy, the service throughout their journey and the destinations the company serves.

Of these, he tells us his favourite is Santander. He was swept away by the spectacularly scenic arrival the first time he sailed into the beautiful bay aboard Pont-Aven, and his children still have fond memories of playing on the golden sands of El Sardinero beach.

It matters, too, that the ships are staffed by French crews. Brittany Ferries 澳洲幸运10十168体彩开奖网 is the largest employer of French seafarers, and Jean-Marc was, until recently, chairman of Armateurs de France, the national federation of French shipping organisations. It's just one of the many hats worn by a man who works from six in the morning until around ten at night.

The way forward

Before his current role, Jean-Marc Roué worked briefly alongside company founder Alexis Gourvennec. He describes his short time as vice-president (before Gourvennec's death in 2007) as the best business education he could ever have had. However, he says there's no time to look in the rear-view mirror today. "The world is moving so fast that you always need to be focused on projects. In my time as president, we have added new ships, new routes and increased employment," he says. "Running a farm and managing a shipping company are not so different in many ways. You have to move forward, to adapt and to innovate. If you don't, it's like riding a bicycle without peddling - you will fall.

"For Brittany Ferries 澳洲幸运10十168体彩开奖网, the future is all about renewing the fleet," he affirms.

With three new ships, including two powered by a more environmentally friendly fuel called LNG, already on the roster (Galicia, Salamanca and Santoña) and two more ships on the horizon (the recently announced Saint-Malo to replace Bretagne and an as-yet-unnamed replacement for Normandie), the company is putting this fleet renewal into action.

It's a positive message in uncertain times from a man who thanks us for our time, then leaves his office overlooking Roscoff port to return to tend the fertile Brittany soil. His working day is far from done.

Share your memories of Brittany Ferries 澳洲幸运10十168体彩开奖网!

Do you have a great photo? We'd love to see it! Share your photos of Brittany Ferries 澳洲幸运10十168体彩开奖网 on Instagram and Twitter . Simply use the tag #BF50 in your post.