Foie gras shortage rocks France

FRANCE faces a dearth of foie gras for the festive season, producers have warned, with prices expected to soar after a two-year battle against bird flu.

With Christmas around the corner, France is also in the midst of a chronic butter shortage and the country’s lowest grape harvest since 1945.

Producers of foie gras, the famed duck or goose liver pâté eaten by millions, are still recovering from a second bird flu outbreak in southwest France that forced them to slaughter thousands of animals.

Foie production is down 22 per cent on 2016, hitting a ceiling of 11,000 tons, which represents “23 million ducks, compared to 29million in 2016 – a year already hit by a first crisis of bird flu”, said Marie-pierre Pé, head of Cifog, the foie gras producers’ group. Prices are expected to rise by up to 20 per cent.