AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA): In recent years, the French halal market has faced a significant paradox: while poultry consumption in the country has become heavily dependent on imports, a considerable portion of the chicken used in the halal market and chain restaurants is also supplied from European countries, particularly Poland. A local Parisian news website, in a report reviewing developments over the past 15 years, traces the roots of part of this situation to the political controversies surrounding halal and regulations related to religious slaughter in 2011 and 2012.
The story unfolded at a time when the French poultry industry was gradually losing a large share of its domestic market. According to figures presented in this report, in 2025, 52.4 percent of poultry consumed in France was imported, and the country's self-sufficiency rate reached 67 percent. Poultry imports also increased by 9.5 percent in the same year compared to the previous year. This dependence is greater in the food service and restaurant sector, where the share of imported poultry in some parts of this market, according to the report, reaches 70 to 80 percent.
Among the countries exporting poultry to France, Poland has gained a special position. According to the data mentioned in the report, this country supplied approximately 29 percent of France's poultry meat imports in 2023, followed by Belgium with 24 percent. Poland's exports to France have also increased nearly tenfold since 2010. According to this report, this development is not seen solely as the result of lower production costs in Eastern Europe, and part of it is linked to the shift in halal market suppliers.
The Turning Point; Halal Controversies in 2011 and 2012
According to the website, at the end of 2011, halal had become a recurring topic in French public debates, but discussions revolved more around concepts such as "communitarianism" and "Islamization" rather than consumption, supply chain transparency, or animal welfare. Marine Le Pen also repeatedly took positions against religious slaughter and halal food during that period, and alongside her, part of the French parliamentary right also supported proposals and positions regarding religious slaughter.
In this political atmosphere, the government of François Fillon issued Decree No. 2011-2006 on December 28, 2011, the implementation of which from July 1, 2012, required provincial permits for slaughterhouses that performed religious slaughter. The stated aim of this regulation was to regulate and supervise halal and kosher religious slaughter, but the report specifies that its implementation in practice placed pressure on a segment of French slaughterhouses that performed slaughter without stunning.
According to the website's account, some slaughterhouses, to maintain their operating permits, moved toward greater use of stunning and electrical anesthesia, while others abandoned the practice of religious slaughter without stunning. The halal certification and supervision organization AVS also warned in 2012 about the consequences of these regulations, believing that the new conditions could discourage slaughterhouses that performed religious slaughter without stunning from continuing this activity. As a result, some halal market actors were compelled to find new suppliers outside France.
Poland; An Opportunity That Emerged from France's Disputes
At this stage, Poland became one of the important options for halal market actors. According to this report, Polish producers could provide what some French halal market actors could no longer easily access: high production capacity, regular supply, and slaughterhouses that allowed religious slaughter without stunning in accordance with the needs of some customers.
The report speaks of the formation of shared interests between French Muslim economic actors and the Eastern European meat industries. A French wholesaler who later became a producer and importer in Poland told Al-Kanz that he previously used domestic slaughterhouses to source French meat but felt that some figures in the French industry looked down on Muslim entrepreneurs with contempt. According to him, after the implementation of the new regulations, operating in the French halal market became more difficult, while in contrast, Polish producers saw Muslim actors not as a problem but as business partners and a growth opportunity.
Moussa Magaïdes, who managed the Laguillaumie halal poultry slaughterhouse in the Appoigny area near Auxerre for nearly two decades, also confirmed this trend in an interview with the website and stated that the mentioned regulations drove many halal actors toward Poland, Romania, and Spain, which came at the expense of the French industry.
The growth of chain restaurants and halal fast-food outlets intensified this trend. The increasing demand for portioned chicken, of specific sizes and deliverable in high volumes, required industrial suppliers and powerful logistical networks. According to Al-Kanz's analysis, France failed to retain a portion of the halal market entrepreneurs within its domestic production chain, and as a result, part of this market's growth went to slaughterhouses and factories in other European countries.
In his conclusion, the author points to a political paradox: at a time when Poland embraced the halal market as an economic opportunity, France largely turned it into a political and contentious issue. Now, according to this report, the same atmosphere that previously fueled distrust toward the halal market, at a time when imported poultry has taken over a large share of the French market, is facing concerns about declining domestic production and the need to support "national production."
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