Posted Jan 19, 2023, 10:14 AMUpdated on Jan 19, 2023 at 10:28
“It’s not just a slaughterhouse but first and foremost a development tool for our sector, which responds to the farm-to-fork strategy”, insists Serge Chiappa, president of the Groupement des Eleveurs Girondins (GEG). Inaugurated last October in Bègles, near Bordeaux, it required an investment of 5.2 million euros, 63% financed by breeders and, for the rest, by the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, the metropolis of Bordeaux and the European Union (European Regional Development Fund).
“Our model consists of buying animals from our breeders to add value to the meat, essentially on a metropolitan scale: half through our butcher shops, the other through mass distribution”, specifies Philippe Nompeix, the general manager of the GEG. Therefore, the slaughterhouse is sized for the needs of breeders with a rate that can go up to 18 animals per day. Today he sees about thirty cattle pass through each week. Not to mention the sheep, slaughtered on a specific chain, adapted to their small size.
