Chicken becomes the most popular meat in France

In 2024, for the first time, poultry meat – mainly chicken – became become the most popular meat in France. The French ate 31.6 kgs of chicken, duck or turkey, compared to 31 kgs of pork and charcuterie. Poultry meat consumption grew by 10% year-on-year and by some 15% since 2019.

Encouraging news for the national poultry industry, says Anvol, the French interprofessional organisation for the poultry industry. “We have been able to regain some territory, but national production is still far from sufficient to meet ever-growing demand.”

France still needs to import ever larger quantities of chicken, which, according to Anvol, often comes from countries that do not respect the high standards that French producers must adhere to.

“Chicken is still affordable, easy to cook or otherwise prepare, and is volatile,” Anvol vice-president Patrick Pageard said. “The success is a story with 2 sides, however. Thanks to the vaccination campaign we’ve had in France, the sector have been able to regain its position after a number of bad years because of the outbreaks of avian influenza. However, the modest growth in production is not sufficient to offer everybody the French chicken or duck they want.”

Although the import of poultry last year was lower than in 2023, it is still at an extremely high level, Anvol thinks. Over 4 of all pieces of poultry consumed are imported. For chicken, that’s almost half. Over the last 5 years, the amount of imported chicken has grown by 37% to 222,000 tonnes.

The French State Council recently said in a report that the national market is increasingly dependent on imports. Among the foreign suppliers, Poland multiplied the quantity it sold to France by 5 since 2010, while Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands also supply the French with more chicken. As a result, the trade balance for poultry and poultry meat preparations has showed a massive shortfall of €1.251 billion. “All our efforts to improve the situation haven’t had any effect at all,” Anvol warns.

To fight those massive imports and increase national supply, Anvol and other players in the French poultry sector ask that all actors, the authorities as well as the general public come together in a mobilisation to increase national production. The organisation earlier calculated that 400 new poultry sheds are needed to reach its goal. “That’s one building per year in all of the 99 departments.”

Anvol also asks the government to put a stop on the imports of chicken and other poultry from countries where the production conditions would be forbidden in France. France should also stop gold-plating the European rules and regulations, something current minister of agriculture Annie Genevard has already promised. Last demand: supermarkets, all other shops, restaurants, bars, fast food chains and every other premise where chicken is sold or used should mention the origin of that meat so that those consumers who want French chicken can find it.

Tags: Turkey, pork, France, chicken, imports, poultry meat, duck, consumption, demand