Producers have announced a drop in stocks of foie gras, following the second outbreak of avian flu in France in two years.
What if the production of foie gras was insufficient for the end of the year celebrations? In any case, this was announced by Guillaume Espinet, president of the “Foie gras du Périgord” association on Friday, May 20 during a general meeting in Coulouniex-Chamiers. This shortage is the consequence of the second outbreak of avian flu in France in two years.
Appeared in France in November 2016, the highly pathogenic H5N8 virus for poultry has spread very quickly to hundreds of duck and geese farms in the South-West. Some 3.7 million animals have been killed to stem the spread of the virus. At the same time, a crawl space was set up on April 17 in 1,134 municipalities in the South-West. Still in force, it bans any introduction of ducks until May 29.
250 tonnes less than in 2015
Since the outbreak of this crawl space, two incubators located in the South-West have been stopped and will not be able to restart until January 2018. However, they normally produce 35% of ducklings for the French sector. “When, in a few days, all the breeders affected by the crawl space will be able to replace ducklings, the demand will be too high, and there will not be enough ducklings for the entire French market”, explains Guillaume Espinet on France Bleu Périgord.
A hard blow for breeders who were just recovering from the 2015 epizootic. Moreover, the figures do not lie: Périgord breeders produced 250 tonnes of foie gras less in 2016 compared to 2015, a record year. And this year 2017 it could therefore be even worse.
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