All the transactions concerning meat as food, in a defined space and time: local or worldwide, spot or term, etc. The meat market is run, in France, elsewhere in Europe and in most of the world, according to free market principles, considering supply and demand and health regulations. However, to take into account the fact that it is a food staple and a central agricultural production, governments and international bodies sometimes (even often) intervene to correct market variations considered excessive: intervention, stockpiling and dumping, assisted exports, import or export taxation, quotas, price controls, various obstacles (for example, administrative) to free circulation, more rarely merchandise destruction.