Summary
The spread of highly contagious avian influenza (AI) across Europe in the absence of clear place of origin labelling of the birds from which poultry meat exports are derived, would suggest a need for the pre-emptive introduction of import restrictions where domestic ACP poultry production could be vulnerable to infection. If the EU wants to keep export markets open in the face of periodic outbreaks of high contagious AI within Europe, then mandatory labelling of the place of origin of the birds from which poultry meat exports are derived would appear to be essential.
In late January 2020 the European Commission (EC) suspended poultry imports from Ukraine following ‘confirmation of an outbreak of avian influenza’ at the beginning of 2020 (1). This saw the leading Ukrainian poultry meat processor MHP cease exports to EU member states from their EU certified poultry production facilities from 23rd January 2020. MHP production operations however continued ‘as usual’ in light of the company’s existing export diversification strategy (2), which is seeking to reach markets beyond the EU (see companion epamonitoring.net article, ‘MHP Looking to Africa as Part of its On-Going Expansion Outside of Ukraine’, 1 June 2019)
The Ukrainian State Service on Food Safety and Consumer Protection expressed surprise at the EU’s action, given the efforts underway to agree with the EU ‘mutual recognition of zoning principles in line with OIE international standards’ (1).
With highly contagious bird flu having been confirmed in the Czech Republic in mid-January, French farmers are concerned about the risk of a new pan-European outbreak of avian influenza. This follows reports of further outbreaks in Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania. The French farm union, Coordination Rurale, has called on the French authorities to ‘urgently stop shipments from the infected countries and alert customs agents to the risk’. This needs to be seen in light of the severity of the 2017 bird flu outbreak ‘when millions of birds were culled in Europe’ (3). By mid-February 2020 ‘dozens of cases’ of highly pathogenic AI had been confirmed across the EU, causing ‘huge disruption to the poultry trade’ (2).
The EU is seeking to set in place measures which will both protect the rest of the EU and ensure the EU as a whole can continue to trade poultry meat into 3rd country markets. Press reports suggest allowing imports from ‘non-affected parts of the respective Member State and the rest of the EU’ is viewed by the EC as the normal trading practice (2).
Given AI fears in Europe the average market price of poultry meat across the EU has risen 4% in 2020. By March 2020 EU poultry meat prices were 88% above Brazilian poultry meat prices and 23% above USA poultry meat prices (4).
Prior to the AI outbreak from January to December 2019 total EU poultry meat exports were up 7.6% from 1,776,964 in 2018 to 1,912,740. Two of the top 3 increases in exports in 2019 were to ACP destinations, with exports to South Africa increasing 54.8% from 84,518 tonnes to 130,847 tonnes and exports to Ghana increasing 13.9% from 164,727 tonnes to 187 571 tonnes (4).
EU poultry meat imports over the same period increased 2.4% from 813,372 tonnes to 832,838 tonnes, with Brazil and Thailand accounting for 37.7% and 37.1% of EU imports respectively, while Ukraine accounted for a further 16.1% (4).
| Comment and Analysis While the EU wishes to ensure 3rd country markets remain open to EU poultry meat exports, poultry product labelling based on the country in which the bird was raised is still not in place. This needs to be seen in the context of the pan-European nature of the operations of certain European poultry companies. This means meat may be prepared, cut and packaged for export in a different country from where the bird was raised. This means that meat from birds raised in AI infected countries could still enter export supply chains, despite the stated origin of EU consignments being from a region free of bird flu. If the EU wishes to continue to enjoy access to 3rd country markets for EU poultry meats from ‘non-affected parts of the respective Member State and the rest of the EU’ then better labelling of the country and region within the country from where the bird originates would appear to be necessary. This would appear to be essential to prevent meat from birds raised in AI infected areas from entering the extra-EU export supply chain. In the absence of clear labelling on the origin of the bird from which poultry meat is derived, ACP governments would appear justified in pre-emptively restricting imports of poultry meat from the EU on phytosanitary grounds in a context where highly contagious avian influenza is spreading across Europe. In addition, ACP governments should be playing close attention to imports of poultry meat from the Ukraine, given the urgent need for companies such as MHP to find export markets for production which is no longer allowed entry to the EU market. In this context it should be noted that in 2019 from January to December, Ukraine exported some 134,262 tonnes to the EU market, up 8.6% compared to the corresponding period in 2018. With the EU market now closed companies such as MHP will be desperately searching out alternative markets where SPS controls are less stringently applied. |
Sources:
(1) Globalmeatonline, ‘European Commission suspends poultry imports from Ukraine following avian influenza outbreak’, 27 January 2020
https://www.globalmeatnews.com/Article/2020/01/27/European-Commission-suspends-poultry-imports-from-Ukraine-following-avian-influenza-outbreak
(2) poultrynews.co.uk, ‘Avian influenza: no room for complacency’, 10 February 2020
http://www.poultrynews.co.uk/health-welfare/avian-influenza-no-room-for-complacency.html
(3) phys.org, ‘Czechs detect bird flu as new Europe outbreak feared’, 18 January 2020
https://phys.org/news/2020-01-czechs-bird-flu-europe-outbreak.html
(4) EC, ‘Poultry Meat: Dashboard’, 4 March 2020
https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/info/files/food-farming-fisheries/farming/documents/poultry-meat-dashboard_en.pdf