In a report published on Tuesday, October 4, obtained by franceinfo, the NGOs Réseau Action Climat, Greenpeace and Oxfam accuse France of exporting low-end meat to developing countries. They say they find that “the intensification of export-oriented breeding models is increasing”.
>>Food: one in two chickens bought in France comes from abroad
“In complete contradiction to changing societal expectations, pursue the NGOs, the players in these sectors find themselves locked into an unsustainable model, embarked on a mad race to compete on world markets without competitive advantages”.
Three production sectors are singled out by this report: broiler chicken, pork and conventional milk production. These production sectors are held by a handful of manufacturers, including Bigard, Agromousquetaire, and even LDC. According to the associations, if 30% of exports of French pork products are intended for third countries, China and the Philippines “absorb a large part of the exports of three products with low added value”, such as 42% of frozen pork or 51% of offal.
Tomorrow, we reveal the less than stellar backstage of blue white red intensive breeding exports.
Nothing to shout croaking.
Until tomorrow pic.twitter.com/wS7aSBmIkx— Climate Action Network (@RACFrance) October 3, 2022
According to the report, these production sectors have targeted the low-end market abroad which reinforces the intensification of livestock farming, with consequences for labour, animal welfare and the environment, without however guarantee food sovereignty. “Most of the products exported from industrial transformation processes (powders and other dry products) come from intensive dairy farms”says this report.
Réseau Action Climat, Oxfam and Greenpeace make several recommendations for these sectors. In particular, they propose adopting “at the European level, a two-way border regulation: demanding criteria for entry and for exports”. NGOs call for “redirect public aid towards extensive livestock farming, in particular aid from the CAP”.
They also wantprohibit the advertising and promotion of meat from intensive farming, in particular by large retailers”. Intensive farming means the chickens live 40 days and are sometimes 22 to 1 square meter. At the scale of the sector, 11% of production has the red label. And only 1% the organic label.