Document type : Written answer published in the Journal Officiel du Sénat
Authors: Question: André Vallini (Isère - SER). Answer: Ministry of Agriculture and Food
Question: Mr André Vallini draws the attention of the Minister for Agriculture and Food to the regulation of animal slaughter.
Current regulations allow for an exemption from the obligation to stun animals before bleeding for the production of kosher and halal meat. According to a report by the Ministry of Agriculture, published in 2019, ritual slaughter accounted for 14% of the cattle market and 22% of the sheep market.
Nevertheless, little data is available on ritual slaughter. Thus, there are no statistics concerning the demand for and production of meat from animals slaughtered in accordance with the kosher and halal rituals, whether for domestic consumption or export. A knowledge of such statistics would allow a better understanding of the practice of slaughter without stunning and to ensure the proper control of government exemptions granted to abattoirs.
He would therefore like to know whether the Government intends to make public before the end of the first half of 2021 the statistics required to assess the demand for meat from ritual slaughter and regulate exemptions.
Answer: Collection at national level of information on slaughter volumes is carried out by the Statistics and Forecasting Department of the Ministry of Agriculture using overall figures. The Ministry of Agriculture does not have any statistical data related to the production of or demand for meat specifically from ritual slaughter.
