Two slaughterhouses leave the MPB, reducing their representativeness to only 3.8% of French production

Two major French slaughterhouses have left the Breton Pork Market (MPB) in recent weeks. The MPB is a reference market for French pork, which sets farmgate prices for pork. At the beginning of October, the Cooperl livestock cooperative announced its departure, which has 3,000 member farmers, 7,700 employees and more than 30 industrial centers located mainly in the Great West of France. It is the leader in pork production in France. In August, the Bigard group announced its departure, which is the third largest meat processor in Europe, has 30 slaughterhouses in France and 54 industrial plants. Some of the complaints expressed by the two companies that have left are the “incomplete representativeness” of the actors participating in the MPB and the low volumes marketed (around 6% of French production in 2022). As can be seen in the attached graph, the MPB sold 1.36 million pigs, that is, an average of 26,000 pigs per week. The Bernand group was the most important player with 9,313 ...