U-turn

Media reports suggest France is urging its farmers to produce more cut-price meat in a major U-turn on factory farming, with inflation hammering demand for organic pork, beef and chicken.

The agriculture minister, Marc Fesneau, told a big agro-industry gathering on Tuesday that “we have to admit that we must work on the entry level” end of the market.

“Animal welfare issues only work if we find someone to pay” for high-quality meat, he insisted.

The comments seem to signal a major shift in government thinking after Emmanuel Macron shook France’s powerful intensive farming lobby, soon after coming to power in 2017, by saying it was time to “stop production, whether of poultry or pork, which no longer corresponds to our tastes or needs”.

Only “30% of French people now have the means to pay more for quality”, compared with half the population six years ago, according to one analyst.