La compétitivité des filières animales françaises face à la concurrence européenne et mondiale

Animal products represent only 16% of world trade in agri-food products. They make a positive contribution to the European Union's trade balance (+33.9 billion euros in 2019), mainly thanks to the dairy and pork sectors. With a trade balance in animal production of around €4.2 billion in 2019, France is only in seventh place among European countries, far behind the Netherlands (€13.7 billion). With a deficit in value in three sectors (pork, poultry and sheep/goat), since the end of milk quotas in 2015, France has recorded a significant decline in its trade balance in dairy products with EU partner countries (in parallel with a stability in its milk production); the rise in demand in Asian countries, especially China (infant milk), has, however, partially offset this decline. In the beef sector, the great diversity of finished products, the increased communication on "eating French" and the decline in domestic consumption are now a brake on the development of imports. This observation does not apply to the poultry sector where imports of standard chicken cuts from northern EU countries have increased considerably, in parallel with growing domestic demand. In the sheep sector, which has historically had a large deficit (57% self-supply rate in 2019), the decline in individual consumption (halved since 1990) is a particular concern for the industry. In the pork sector, France's trade balance is in deficit in value and slightly positive in volume; imports from Spain weight heavily and the spectacular increase in Chinese imports, following the African swine fever crisis, has benefited France little overall (at least compared to Spain and Germany).