the dilemma of butchers in the face of rising meat prices

It is the food product whose price has risen the most. Meat is now 24.5% more expensive than a year ago, according to a survey by Nielsen IQ.

For butchers, it’s a cold shower. “We are forced to turn the labels and increase the pricesblows Alain, manager of a butcher’s shop in the 15th arrondissement of Paris. Today, a roast free-range chicken with Label Rouge is sold for €15.90 per kilo. When I started my activity in February 2019, I was at €12.90 per kilo. We can’t do anything because it’s the company that suffers… We try to find the right balance to satisfy the customer.”

“And the capons? What do they eat? Cereals! So, for Christmas, it’s going to be very hard for customers.”

Jean-Charles, employee at a caterer

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To inflation, we must add the avian flu which has been raging in France since 2021. 43,000 ducks were still slaughtered, a few days ago, in a farm in Morbihan. For Jean-Charles, employed at a caterer, these repercussions could extend until the end of the year celebrations. Poultry will be rarer, and therefore more expensive. “The foie gras, we won’t have a lot of it and it’s going to be very expensiveassures the professional. We are penalized but it is above all the customers who notice at the checkout that everything is increasing.”

Faced with exploding prices, some butchers nevertheless decide not to change their prices… for the moment. “At Rungis, they swell practically by 10-20 centimes a dayexplains Jean-Luc, an employee of the Bernard butcher shop, south of Paris. With us, a slice of lamb is €34.90 when it should be €44.90. My boss didn’t want to increase the meat because, if you increase by ten or twenty centimes, you break your face.”

It remains to be seen how long the butchers will be able to resist. And the summer drought does not improve anything since breeders are already drawing on their fodder stocks for next winter. Average prices are expected to gain another 10% by the end of the year.