The beef sector in North America, as in much of Europe, has not industrialized as rapidly as other animal production industries (pork, poultry). At the same time, the market share for beef in household meat consumption has dwindled. Apart from a penalizing price effect, various studies in North America (Wachenhein and Singley, 1999; Goldsmith et al., 2002; Schroeder and Kovanda, 2003) have accounted for this in terms of a lack of vertical coordination in the sector, the absence of a channel captain at the processing stage, and the dearth of product differentiation initiatives directed at customer expectations. The purpose of this contribution is to analyse the case of the French beef sector and to compare and contrast findings with the situation described in the United States and Canada.