At the microphone of BFMTV this morning, the president of the U cooperative mentions a reduction of 5% to 6% in the prices of foie gras, made possible by an increase in production.
Finally some good news as the Christmas holidays approach. This Tuesday, November 26, Dominique Schelcher, the president of the U cooperative, announced that the price of foie gras was moving downward this year on the mass distribution side with reductions of around “5% to 6% “. A visible sign of a resumption of production in 2023 after the massive episodes of the avian flu virus which has shaken up the sector in recent years. After an unprecedented and prolonged epizootic crisis (32 million poultry slaughtered between summer 2021 and autumn 2023), foie gras production fell from 18,800 tonnes in 2015 to 11,500 tonnes in 2021. “We are returning to normal production levels, therefore to a normal situation where brands use our products to attract customers”explains Fabien Chevalier, president of the Interprofessional Committee for Foie Gras Palmipeds (Cifog).
This collapse of 40% in six years then led to an unprecedented rise in prices. “For three years, we had a crisis of supply, and not of demand”continues Fabien Chevalier. According to a Kantar study commissioned by the foie gras inter-professional association, this product attracts more and more French people each year. In 2023, production increased by 20%, after a catastrophic year in 2022 marked by the mass increase in preventive fellings. After a price increase of more than 15% in 2022, then a slowdown in the increase to 5% in 2023, this flagship product of the end-of-year holidays will finally see its price drop on supermarket shelves.
Vaccination success
To stem the epidemic and support the sector, the government decided in 2023 to make vaccination compulsory in farms with more than 250 ducks, excluding breeding animals. From October 2023 to September 2024, 85% of the vaccination campaign (purchase of doses, administration, monitoring, etc.) was financed by the State, the rest being the responsibility of professionals. The German laboratories Boehringer Ingelheim and the French Ceva Santé Animale were selected in March 2024 to supply the second wave of vaccines against avian flu in France. Boehringer Ingelheim “will provide 34.2 million doses of vaccines” against avian flu, “i.e. more than half of the volumes of the second call for tenders launched by the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Sovereignty”the group then indicated in a press release.
The State has nevertheless decided to reduce its participation to 70% for the last three months of 2024, renewing producers’ concerns about the 2025 budget. “We end up being worried” in this “period of budgetary arbitration”remarked Fabien Chevalier. Last winter, France was largely spared from avian flu thanks to the lesser circulation of the virus in Europe and the vaccination of ducks, which it is the only exporting country to practice, according to the National Health Security Agency. food, environment and work (ANSES).
Other good news for consumers, Dominique Schelcher believes that oysters will also be “significantly cheaper” than in 2023. Speaking to our colleagues at BFMTV, the manager encouraged customers of U stores to support oyster farmers whose “cash flow is difficult”. Unlike foie gras, the oyster industry is facing a demand crisis. “We have recorded a 20% drop in consumption in France for three years and the curve is not rising”lamented Thierry Hélie, president of the Normandy Regional Shellfish Culture Committee (CRC), to our colleagues in Ouest-France during oyster week at the beginning of October.
Swiss
