French beef livestock

French beef livestock: the biggest and most diverse herds in Europe

- The leading beef producer in the European Union with 1.76 million TEC (tons equivalent carcass, corresponding to the tonnage leaving slaughterhouses), some 1/5 of total EU-25 production (7.8 million TEC).
- Leading cow herds in the EU (8 million head in 2005 of the 35.5 million in the EU-25).
- Great historic diversity of breeds (25 different breeds) and types of farms, broken down as:
- - Four zones with mainly calf farms (Centre-Charolais, Limousin, mountains of the Massif Central, and Greater Southwest).
- - Two other zones with mainly dairy and fattening farms (Greater East, Greater West).

- About 250,000 beef farms in France, of which about 60% are specialized in beef cattle.
- The country is characterized by the importance of its herds of beef cattle breeds (Aubrac, Blonde d’Aquitaine, Charolaise, Gasconne, Limousine and Salers in particular), bred solely for beef production, whereas in the whole of the EU, dairy breeds dominate.
- France has a third of all beef cattle in the EU, ahead of Spain (16%), the UK (15%) and far ahead of Germany (6%).

The weight of the beef sector in France and in the world:

All operators included (production, market operators, slaughtering and meatpacking, distribution): 27 billion euros sales volume in 2006 (source: Agreste). In comparison, the sales for steelmaking is 18 billion and the chemical industry 26 billion euros.

The European leader for the export of beef, in the top 15 suppliers in the world, with in 2006 some 1.473 million TEC slaughtered. France exports nearly 1.5 million head of beef cattle yearly, for a value of 1.3 billion euros, and from 250,000 to 280,000 TEC of beef worth 900 million euros.

About 32 % of the production is exported, in particular to European countries.

Sources and useful complementary links:

www.office-elevage.fr
www.agriculture.gouv.fr/esbinfo/esbinfo.htm
www.civ-viande.org
ec.europa.eu/food/fvo/index_en.htm