Easter: French producers defend expensive but very high quality lamb

Charles Luylier // Credits: Thierry Zoccolan / AFP 9:29 a.m., March 28, 2024

Fighting unfair competition from New Zealand. This is the objective of breeders in the South-West. This week, and as the Easter weekend approaches, several supermarkets in the region have been invaded. These breeders distributed leaflets to customers to make them understand that it is impossible for them to match the price of this lamb from the end of the world. In question, the standards and breeding methods, which are much more restrictive in France. Europe 1 went to a farm near Toulouse. 

At Sébastien, a breeder, the 110 lambs frolic in a huge 500 square meter sheepfold. “He weighs around sixteen kilos. He has very white wool which proves that he has a lot of milk. There, he is agitated because he wants to find his mother,” he explains to Europe 1. A farm on a human scale, the polar opposite of the gigantic New Zealand farms which have up to 5,000 animals. 

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A difference in regulations 

In France, Sébastien must show his credentials regarding the food he gives to his lambs. "We are forbidden from using GMO cereals. We have a whole charter regarding antibiotics, we don't just do anything. That's why meat is much more expensive in France than in New Zealand ", he says. At Sébastien, the lamb is in fact three times more expensive than that of New Zealand. But this traceability reassures Marie, a regular customer: "We don't understand anything about New Zealand lamb on the trays. We agree to pay more, perhaps eat a little less, as long as it's good quality. quality". 

The problem, beyond the price, is that Sébastien and the 7,000 breeders in the country cannot currently provide the four kilos of lambs consumed every year by each French person.