Too Little Foie Gras Again

Things aren’t really going well for the French in France. Shortages of their beloved foods are a daily occurrence. With Christmas and New Year’s Eve just around the corner, that’s not exactly convenient.

We previously wrote about the painful vanilla and butter shortages that are driving up costs for pastry chefs and bakers in France and that are, among other things, threatening the buttery croissant. It also turned out that, thanks to a severe period of frost in the spring, 2017 would be a less successful wine year.

Scarce = expensive

And now comes the news of a foie gras shortage. In pretty much the rest of the world, foie gras has been under fire for years because of the animal-unfriendly methods used to produce these fatty goose and duck livers (check YouTube for graphic videos). And that has significantly reduced global consumption – except in top restaurants, where the liver has once again become highly sought-after after a brief dip.

But in France, foie gras remains one of those typical holiday delicacies, and the liver features on many a Christmas shopping list – animal-unfriendly or not.

No foie gras during the holidays? Unthinkable in France.

Whether the French will actually be able to get their beloved liver this holiday season remains to be seen. After bird flu struck for two years in a row, French production in the typical foie gras regions of Nouvelle-Aquitaine and Occitanie has fallen by a total of 40 percent. And that means there is a shortage. And scarcity drives up prices.

Faux gras

So it will be an expensive Christmas for the French. Because whether they will be enthusiastic about the recently developed plant-based and therefore animal-friendly faux gras in Antwerp remains to be seen. And whether declining global consumption can offset demand in France is another question. And if not, the French won’t even be able to eat away their disappointment with a buttery croissant.