An oyster farm in Zeeland is claiming a world first after successfully raising the clams on land, NOS reports.

Father and son team Sam and Sybe Smit cultivated the creuse or Japanese oysters at their high-tech facility in Kats, on the Oosterschelde estuary. The first batch is being taken to market this week so they are available in restaurants and specialist fishmongers in time for Christmas.

The farmers used containers filled with purified river water and home-grown plankton to mature the oysters, which were bought from a sea oyster farm as immature specimens.

The technique allows oysters to mature and be sold all year round and reduces damage through disease. Eventually the team hope to cultivate the oysters from seed.

The Smits’ next aim is to breed the European flat oyster, which is a more valuable species on the fish markets.