OUR PAST IS ONE…
Several countries are proud of foie gras as a gastronomic value and tradition. If we want to determine the beginning of foie gras production within a country, some look back to several hundred years of history, while others only look back to a few decades when telling their story.
Of the European foie gras powers (France, Hungary, Spain, Belgium and Bulgaria), France and Hungary can look back on a history of several hundred years, while the others are relatively new players in foie gras production.
Of course, each country likes to tell the story of the beginnings of foie gras production from its own perspective, but one thing is certain – and one that experts also agree on – from 2500 BC until the Middle Ages, the foie gras powers are part of and heirs to the same history. They can directly or indirectly thank the same past events for the fact that they are engaged in foie gras production today.
The practice of fattening animals began in ancient Egypt and spread to the rest of Europe through the Greek and Roman empires. From the Middle Ages until the 16th century, Judaism played a major role in maintaining and spreading this culture.
During the 5th Dynasty of Egypt (2500-2350 BC), tomb paintings already depicted the domesticated goose, which was the first bird to be domesticated. The first surviving evidence of this is a relief from the Saqqara Necropolis in Lower Egypt. The paintings show the keeping and trade of geese, as well as the way the geese were fattened. It is likely that the Egyptians, while closely observing the birds, noticed that migratory birds overfed themselves before the migration period and that the livers of geese became much larger, creamier, tastier and had more fat.
Opinions differ as to whether the primary purpose of fattening was the foie gras, which was considered a delicacy, or the fat, the latter being a great treasure in the preservation process and in the preparation of embalming. In addition, in Egyptian mythology, the goose was a sacred animal that symbolized the god of the Earth, Geb.
The tradition of fattening geese spread across the Mediterranean to Greece, and the Romans became familiar with this method during their Egyptian and Greek campaigns and made it part of Roman gastronomy. The first written record in ancient Greece dates back to 800 BC. Homer first wrote about domesticated geese in his Odyssey, where his main character, Odysseus, bought 20 geese for his wife to keep. Aristotle, during his work on natural philosophy, dealt extensively with zoology, categorizing animals in his 10-volume work and studying, among other things, the nesting habits of geese (around 343 BC).
In ancient Rome, geese were kept not only as sacrificial animals, but also as guard animals, as evidenced by the historical event known as the Capitoline Geese. In 390 BC, the Gauls besieged Rome, which had been depopulated by war, but they could not take the Capitoline for 7 months, which was defended by the best Roman soldiers. The Gauls finally resorted to trickery and attempted a final attack under cover of night, but the cawing of the geese, kept in honor of the goddess Juno, alerted the guards and saved the Romans from defeat. Thus, the goose became a symbol of the discoverers of the hidden, also called “Moneta”, which means a warning.
Several Roman thinkers and writers dealt with goose farming and the technology of stuffing. For example, in the 2nd century BC, Cato, the famous statesman, excelled as an agricultural writer in addition to his political role and wrote, among other things, about the method of stuffing. Interestingly, in the fattening process, stuffing was the task of Jewish slaves.
Gastronomy became a true art in the Roman Empire. The Romans seriously experimented with how to make the taste and texture of foie gras even more delicious and creamy. They discovered that feeding certain fruits had a beneficial effect on the birds. They fed the geese figs soaked in milk, but they also tried using honey. The Romans called foie gras iecur ficatum, i.e. liver stuffed with figs. It is likely that after a while, the Romans bred geese specifically for their liver, which was considered one of the main delicacies of the aristocracy.
After the fall of the Roman Empire, several written records remained about the prominent role of geese in the economy. In Europe, in the second half of the 7th century, during the reign of the Frankish Emperor Charlemagne, the first written decree on the obligation of keeping geese was issued, by which the ruler obliged larger estates to keep geese. Later, in the Germanic territory, during the Hohenstaufen dynasty, in the 12th-13th centuries, geese were considered a means of paying taxes. By the Middle Ages, foie gras had disappeared from public consciousness. At that time, it was believed that only the Jews knew the secret of foie gras. It is true that we can primarily thank them for the preservation of the culture of fattening and the production of fattened foie gras. Since goose fat played a significant role in Jewish cuisine, both in cooking and in preserving, fattening geese was of particular importance to them. Through the migration of Jewish communities, the filling procedure also reached the territories of France, Hungary, Germany, and Poland over the centuries.
Foie gras made a great comeback in France between the 16th and 18th centuries. The term “foie gras” (fatty liver) originated from the same period. The word foie, meaning liver, comes from the Latin ficatum (meaning fig). During the reign of Louis XIV, foie gras was already present on the tables of the aristocracy in the French royal court, but the real breakthrough came from a chef from Strasbourg. In 1788, Jean Pierre Clause perfected the Roman foie gras recipe and prepared a special foie gras pâté for his employer, the Marquis of Contades. The Marquis – who was also the governor of Alsace – once sent such a pâté to the monarch himself, along with the recipe, for which Louis XVI granted Contades land. The French monarch called this delicacy the food of kings, and this marked the beginning of a new era in the popularity of foie gras.
By the end of the 20th century, there were only a few countries left that were engaged in foie gras production. The most significant producers, which account for the vast majority of the world’s foie gras production, were located in Europe. In addition to Europe, China is also trying to gain a share of this market, and it should be taken into account as a future factor, because its production potential may increase significantly in the coming decades.
There are countries where this sector is also found, but their production volume and significance are very small. An example of this is America, where the foie gras culture has survived thanks to German settlers who arrived in the 19th century, and where production is still carried out on small farms in some states. However, these family farms serve only local needs, mainly selling the raw material to local restaurants and do not join the export trade.
All countries involved in foie gras production in the European Union are members of the Euro Foie Gras Federation. The organization was founded in Strasbourg in 2008 with the membership of France, Hungary, Bulgaria, Spain and Belgium. The Federation defines foie gras as a prestigious and high-quality product and considers its objectives, among others, to promote foie gras, develop a common position on issues affecting the sector, continuously exchange experiences in the interest of innovation, and draw the attention of policymakers to the sector itself and its importance. It defines the concept of foie gras and foie gras in a regulation, thereby regulating which products can be sold on the European market. The regulation also specifically addresses the definition of weight; duck liver must weigh more than 300g, while goose liver must weigh more than 400g in order to be considered foie gras.
In addition, the association is committed to the protection and welfare of animals. In this regard, it has formulated a directive (95/98EC) that extends its scope to its members, and in 2011 it issued a charter that summarizes in 12 points the commitments that are important for animal welfare and regulate the activities of producers.
According to statistics, approximately 21,000 tons of foie gras were produced worldwide in 2021. 86% of this, approximately 18,000 tons, was produced in Europe. In 2021, the distribution of this quantity among European foie gras producing countries was as follows: France 68.56%, Hungary 20.10%, Bulgaria 8.34%, Spain 2.93% and Belgium 0.07%.
France’s history and connection to foie gras production is well-known from earlier times (link to the historical section), but it has played an extremely important role even after the reign of the monarchs. Until the mid-20th century, foie gras was understood exclusively as goose liver, but the French consciously changed their consumption habits in favor of duck liver. From the 1960s, it is clear that the majority of French farmers involved in foie gras began to switch to duck liver in order to reduce production costs and increase fattening efficiency. With the involvement of the French National Institute of Agricultural Research (INRAE), the producers developed the hybrid duck breed called Mulard. With this step, they fundamentally changed consumption habits, first domestically and then internationally. Today, the French foie gras sector has almost entirely switched to duck liver production. Currently, foie gras is also produced to a negligible extent, but most of the demand is met by importing Hungarian foie gras.
France is the world leader in the production of fattened duck foie gras. With a total annual production of 12,300 tons (duck and goose foie gras combined), it is also the leader not only in Europe but also in the whole world.
According to historical records, goose farming existed in Hungary as early as the 12th century, after which the population had to pay a church tithe. From then until the 17th century, there is no written evidence of fattening geese. However, it is likely that Jewish communities brought the culture of fattening with them from ancient Egypt and applied it to their own backyard geese. With the discovery of the New World, the appearance and import of corn to Europe resulted in significant progress and change in European agriculture. The use of corn instead of barley in the fattening of waterfowl also meant a qualitative change.
The boom in corn production in Hungary also helped strengthen farm farming from the second half of the 18th century. At that time, only a few traders, so-called “goose farmers”, were involved in goose farming and their sale.
The 19th century brought the greatest progress in Hungarian foie gras production. Small-scale goose farming was significant, which served almost exclusively family households. In Hungary, districts specialized in the various processes of goose farming. The goose fattening districts were concentrated in the Great Plain, Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok and Békés counties (Jászapáti, Karcag, Orosháza, etc.). The favorable climate, the use of a new fodder plant (corn) during fattening, the developed trade routes of the region and, last but not least, the expertise all increased the excellent quality of Hungarian foie gras.
The First Austrian-Hungarian Foie Gras Export Company, founded by Antal Hirschfeld in 1870, was a pioneer in Hungarian foie gras exports. The large-scale processing and trade of foie gras began. The 1876 report of the Békés County Economic Association already reported that Orosháza produced significant foie gras exports. In 1880, Salamon Steinberger built the first cold storage and further increased the country’s export potential with the wholesale trade of foie gras. Between the two world wars, Hungary exported 400-500 tons of foie gras annually. During the socialist era, the situation of the domestic foie gras sector was unfavourable.
It reached its lowest point in the 1960s, when exports were minimized, and no significant progress was made until the mid-1970s. Thanks to favorable measures for the sector, both production and product quality reached their peak in the 1990s. Almost all foie gras was exported, and even today, domestic processing is still minimal.
In September 2013, Hungary declared foie gras a Hungaricum, as an excellent national product, placing it at the top of the national value pyramid.
Hungary is the world leader in the production of foie gras, with the latest data (2021) showing that farmers produced 1,194 tonnes of foie gras. France is the largest buyer of Hungarian foie gras, but large quantities are also exported to Israel and Japan. In Hungary, foie gras production has increased significantly in the last decade, with 2,420 tonnes of foie gras it ranks second in the world, as well as in total production (foie gras and duck foie gras combined).
Based on all this, it can be stated that the two leaders of current European foie gras production are France and Hungary. Bulgaria could rise to the forefront next to them if it follows the production growth experienced in recent decades. It will be even more interesting to see how the current trend – according to which the desire to produce foie gras is decreasing – changes in Hungary and thus throughout the world.
Tímea Máté-Kecskés, dr.
