Butcher's meat looks steady on average and anything but steady cut by cut. On figures dated 4 November 2026, its 41 indexed lines were 0.1% lower over three months and 2.4% lower over a year, with 19 rising, 21 falling and one unchanged. The family holds 44 materials across beef, veal, pork, lamb, mutton, goat and horse.
Beef forequarter cuts led. Chuck steak and beef shoulder rose 7.9% over three months and beef neck 5.8%, yet all three stand well below last year, at -14.8% for the first two and -15.3% for neck. Prime cuts barely moved: sirloin steak eased 0.2%, and broad beef edged up 0.4%, though it is 5.2% lower on the year.
Veal split sharply. Veal gained 5.8% and veal shoulder/short loin 4.9%, while veal onglet plunged 20.8%, the family's steepest fall. Lamb cuts, from leg of lamb to lamb neck, all slipped 3.6% over the quarter but remain 3.1% up on the year. Mutton added 3.1%, and 14.0% over a year.
In pork, the broad pork line rose 4.4%, but pork oyster and pork belly trimming fell 5.1% and show the family's largest annual drop, -19.5%. Pork ribs are down 18.6% on the year and pork collar 16.3%.
On lamb, the notes report a shortfall of lambs flagged by the French sheep sector on 8 October, and a 29 October report said French demand for British lamb was driving exports. In pork, the Normandy sector described itself as struggling on 29 October, and EU pork exports were down over the first seven months of 2026.
For veal, falling supply was easing pressure on prices on 25 October, its note says. On beef, the French federation Culture Viande warned on 29 September of a catastrophic situation, with drought and a lack of fodder forcing farmers to send animals to slaughter en masse.