Possible turnaround for French chicken sector

Chicken production in France showed a strong increase of 6% in weight and almost 5% in numbers in December. That followed several months of more or less strong declines, resulting in a decrease of almost 6% of the number of chicken slaughtered in the year 2014 as a whole.

The total chicken production amounted to 745 million heads or 993 million tonnes. Because consumption increased, France had to import some 4% more chicken and chicken products, the so called preparations.

Turkey slaughter up while imports drop

The number of turkeys slaughtered in 2014 came to almost 46 million which is some 4% more year on year while the import of turkeys and turkey meat was down by 6%.

France increased duck imports by 12%

For ducks, France slaughtered 76 million animals or just over 1.5% more than in 2013. Here, the import increased by 12% to the still low level of 17,000 tonnes.