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Retail

French Foie Gras Makers Count On Christmas To Bolster Sales

By Dayeeta Das
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French Foie Gras Makers Count On Christmas To Bolster Sales

French producers of foie gras are urging customers to eat the delicacy for Christmas to make up for a slump in demand from restaurants because of COVID-19 restrictions.

Global demand for premium foods has plunged since the spring, with thousands of restaurants shuttered and many economies sliding into recession amid the coronavirus pandemic.

A second wave of COVID-19, which this week forced the French authorities to announce night-time curfews, has put paid to industry hopes of a swift recovery.

"We have suffered a lot during this period," said Michel Fruchet, chairman of French foie gras industry group Cifog.

Producers' hopes now rest on the year-end festivities, which traditionally account for about 70% of total foie gras sales each year.

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Marketing Drive

To boost Christmas sales, the foie gras industry has arranged with major food retailers to have marketing drives in their stores, and the industry is staging a 'foie gras week' at the start of December to raise awareness about the product.

Foie gras is considered a gourmet food in Western and Asian cuisine and a piece of French culinary heritage, but the practice of force-feeding ducks or geese to make the pate is condemned as cruel by animal activists.

The COVID-19 crisis comes after the foie gras industry had already suffered last year from a new regulation limiting promotions and discounts in shops, and two consecutive bird flu crises in 2016 and 2017 that led to a halt in production and a cull of millions of ducks.

With restaurants - the biggest customers in France for foie gras - either closed or keeping reduced hours during the COVID-19 crisis, the industry was forced to cut production.

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"For 2020, production will be 13% lower than that of 2019," Fruchet said.

News by Reuters, edited by ESM. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.

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