Barthélémy Philippe, edited by Philippe Folgado / Photo credits: LOIC VENANCE / AFP 6:46 a.m., January 30, 2024
It is a symbol of the decline of French agriculture, we import a third of our meat consumption. The French eat 85 kilos of it, which is more than ten years ago. An increase which does not benefit French breeders. And the most striking example is chicken.
The French are big consumers of meat, 85 kilos per year per inhabitant. And yet, it is far from benefiting French breeders. A third of the meat consumed in France is imported. And the most obvious example is chicken. Until 2010, France was the European champion in poultry production and export. Since then, it has only gone downhill.
Half of the chicken consumed in France is imported
The European number one is now Poland. The country is less suffocated by standards, but above all more competitive: "Poland has strongly developed its agriculture, it has been strongly supported by European subsidies. So the sector is new, the slaughterhouses are large, modern and computerized", explains Yves Le Morvan, sector and markets manager for Think Thank Agrillées. In addition, the Poles are efficient, and for a long time the cost of labor was significantly lower.
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French chicken, yes! But at any price!
The result of this policy: a tray of two imported turkey fillets is half the price of its French equivalent. Foreign poultry has established itself in restaurants, fast-food restaurants and canteens. Today, half of the chicken consumed in France is imported, compared to only 20% 20 years ago. France is now only the fifth European poultry producer and the fifth exporter behind Poland, the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium.