In the Bigouden country, it has been around ten days since residents of Penmarc’h, Plomeur and Plonéour-Lanvern made a strange discovery in their mailboxes. In a letter written on behalf of the Kaandorp company, known for its production of bulbs and cut flowers in South Finistère, it is noted that the company “recently learned that in the Netherlands, resistance to antifungals is developing in a very alarming.” The rest of the missive adopts an anxious tone, to say the least. It is thus affirmed that the fungus Aspergillus fumigatus, which can cause “serious, sometimes fatal infections, particularly in immunocompromised patients”, would have mutated following “necessarily intensive use of antifungals intended to protect the bulbs of tulips”.
These concerns would have pushed the operation based in Plomeur (29), very close to La Torche, to collaborate with a laboratory for a “major study” and to make available to local residents “sensors developed in the Netherlands”, allowing to assess the risk of exposure to these resistant strains.
“That’s where the borders come from.”
With its header containing the company’s logo and contact details, everything suggests a real alert from bulb growers. But that would not be the case. Contacted, the manager affirmed that “we never sent this letter. If that were the case, I would have signed it with my own hand and it would come from the health authorities,” maintains Ard Kaandorp. Although the person responsible did not initially take legal action, he finally filed a complaint on May 4, 2026, with the Guilvinec gendarmerie. “It’s a milestone reached. Who knows if I won’t find, one day, my business burnt down,” he says with alarm.
All this takes on important proportions. We cannot, at any time, validate such a drift. This goes beyond the limits.
Contacted, the mayor of Plomeur, Ronan Crédou, protests against this probable identity theft. “All this takes on important proportions. We cannot, at any time, validate such a drift. “It goes beyond the limits,” he reacts. The elected official now hopes that the police “will find the person or group behind these facts”.
The company already targeted
In South Finistère, the site has been targeted for years. In 2025, a collection pump was dismantled by members of the Earth Uprisings. In March 2024, a violent altercation pitted management against demonstrators during open days. Most recently, on April 4, activists sowed amaranth seeds, a herbicide-resistant plant, in fields. So many actions aimed at denouncing the use of phytosanitary products and the structure’s water consumption, for which the Finistère prefecture is requesting regularization.
A real published study
But what about the substance of this letter? As our colleagues from Ouest-France indicate, the Besançon University Hospital has indeed launched a study on the subject, published in February 2024 on the website of the Chrono-environnement laboratory and the media The Conversation. This publication notably highlights a direct link between the cultivation of treated flowers and the resistance of molds dangerous to human health.
