It's tradition at Easter: many French people will eat lamb on Sunday. For sheep farmers, this period is one of the highlights of the year. But with confinement, families will not be able to reunite as usual and will therefore not place large orders with butchers. Consequence: the sheep industry had to adapt.
"When a lamb is ready, it is ready. It is difficult to reject it. When you prepare lambs for Easter, it is not for Pentecost," Maurice Huet, president of the sheep branch of D, told Europe 1. 'Interbev, the interprofession of cattle breeders.
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"We have adapted to the size of the people who will be gathered"
Sheep farmers have thus reduced the portions, to adapt to consumer orders. "In Easter, we consume twice as much lamb as the other months of the year. Almost 8,000 tonnes of lamb are produced. Lamb production is a fairly technical production. is adapted to the size of the people who will be gathered, that is to say often not more than 3 or 4 people. We have adapted the portions to these new sizes ", detailed Maurice Huet.
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"The traditional leg of lamb, you can always buy it and put it in the freezer. But your butcher has prepared smaller pieces that are more suited to the current needs of families, such as slices of leg, shortened leg or roast in the saddle, "advises Maurice Huet.