The flow diagram presenting the results for this supply chain, produced as part of the SOCLE project, offers a complete view of how material circulates through the chain, from supplies to final outlets. It is a Sankey-type representation: the thickness of the arrows is proportional to the quantities (in kilotonnes, kt), making it possible to grasp at a glance the relative weight of each segment.
This diagram aims to represent the supply chain as a whole at the most detailed level possible. Although some data could be mobilised at a finer level of detail than the one shown, it did not make it possible to guarantee complete data all along the chain: such data is therefore shown in aggregated form on the diagram.
The diagram represents all the material flows within the beef supply chain in France, from supply sources to the various final uses, for the 3 years studied in the SOCLE project: 2015, 2019 and 2023 (select the desired year in the timeline below the diagram).
Supplies include livestock from national farming, supplemented by imports. These flows feed the slaughtering and cutting circuits, distinguishing calves from adult cattle. The intermediate market highlights the slaughtering and cutting operations and the separation between meat intended for human consumption and co-products (offal, hides, fats, residues). Part of these co-products is directed to specific treatments, notably thermal or food-grade, before recovery. The outlets include human food (direct sales, butchers, mass retail, catering and agri-food industries), animal feed, non-food or industrial uses (energy, biomaterials, fertilisation), as well as exports.
The thickness of the flows makes it possible to identify the main recovery routes, the structuring role of co-products in the balance of the chain, and the diversity of the final uses of the material produced by cattle farming.
