At the butcher's the price of meat is constantly rising. The consumer's verdict is immediate and irrevocable - the shopkeepers are to blame ! But is the profit levied by middle-men excessive ? Do these profit margins vary and, if so, how ? In fact the middle-men act as a « buffer » between the producer and the consumer and their gross margin acts as a regulator. Thus, when, with the seasons, the butcher's margin increases, the slaughterer's decreases and vice versa, and when there is a considerable margin on fully-grown cattle, there is a small one on veal. The logical consequence of this opposition is that the margin rate levied is on the whole relatively constant, varying between 25 % and 30 % (before tax) of the price paid by the consumer. The same is true in Western Germany and Italy. Should this be a source of satisfaction or of disquiet ? Whatever one's opinion, a clarification of the market and a revaluation of the income of stock-breeders depends more on an interprofessional organisation that would lessen the variations in these margins than on their being recouped by the breeders, which in our opinion is an illusion.
