WHILE the youth of France marches to fight off the globalised economy, a top producer of foie gras has signed a deal this week to help China to become one of the biggest producers of the Gallic delicacy.

Delpeyrat, based in the Landes département, aims to produce 1,000 tonnes a year of foie gras with Chinese partners in Jilin province in a scheme to feed fast-expanding local appetites and export across Asia.

News that France is to turn China into a foie-gras superpower produced muted grumbling in the southwestern heartland, despite recent unhappiness over the arrival of Chinese truffles and frogs’ legs on the French market. Delpeyrat said that it was not outsourcing French foie gras. There was little chance that the Franco-Chinese version would turn up in France because Asian demand was so high and because the French taste was for duck meat rather than goose.

However, some local purists took a dim view of oriental foie gras. Bernard Vernet, a producer in the Périgord, said that he was sure that the Chinese liver would not be as good as the French version, which was declared by Parliament last year to be part of the “cultural and gastronomic heritage”.

“It should not even have the right to be called foie gras,” said M Vernet. “It will have to be labelled ‘Chinese foie gras’, which will say everything about it. I do not think that it could succeed at all in France.”

Thierry Blandinière, general manager of Delpeyrat, said that the only way to bring French-style foie gras to the mass market in China was a local joint venture. “It was better to get to China quickly in order to master the market rather than waiting for the Hungarians to take the foie gras method to the Chinese,” he told The Times.

Hungary has become the second largest producer in recent years, angering French farmers by importing less expensive products than the French, which sells locally for about €100 (£60) per kg.

The Franco-Chinese product would be aimed at Asian taste for cooking foie gras with spices in a wok rather than eating it cold, M Blandinière said.

The arrival in Europe of Chinese tourists in recent years has created a huge Chinese appetite for the dish. Qi Ming Ce, chief of Jifa, the partner of the French company, estimated Chinese demand at 4,000-5,000 tonnes a year.

After avian flu was found in France in February, China banned the entry of French foie gras. However, global demand remains at a record level despite pending bans in California and other US states because of what is seen as the cruel technique of force-feeding the ducks and geese. The method, known as gavage, gives the liver its creamy texture. France produces 17,500 tonnes of foie gras per year, 75 per cent of world consumption.

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• France imports about 4,000 tonnes of frozen legs and 750 tonnes of living frogs a year from Asia, half of them from China

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