March 6, 2014

A study shows that with increasingly stringent EU bird welfare standards, import levies and quotas are needed to protect the EU poultry meat sector, as further market access or lower import levies granted to countries that do not meet EU standards will weaken the competitive position of the EU poultry meat industry.

This is according to a new report commissioned by the Association of Poultry Processors and Poultry Trade in the EU (AVEC) for Wageningen University and Research Centre (WUR) to conduct a study on the competitiveness of EU poultry.

With increasingly stringent EU bird welfare standards, it is essential to guarantee a fair competition between EU and third countries as further market access or lower import levies granted to countries that do not meet EU standards will continue to weaken the competitive position of the EU poultry meat industry.

In 2012, production of poultry meat in EU-27 was almost 13 million tonnes, of which 77% was broiler meat, 15% turkey and 4% duck. The total value of the production in 2012 was €32 billion (US$44 billion). In 2012 the EU exported 1.43 million tonnes poultry meat with a value of €2,064 billion (US$2.8 trillion), while it imported 0.844 million tonnes with a value of €2,202 billion (US$3 trillion).

The EU poultry meat producers work to high standards of legislation on environmental protection, animal welfare and food safety. Where these same high standards are not imposed on imported poultry meat there is a distortion of cost to the detriment of EU businesses.

The EU is a large importer of poultry meat, mainly boneless breast meat. The large majority of imports is under a quota license system with firmly reduced or no import duties. Changes in the existing situation will impact the competitiveness of the EU poultry meat. A scenario with a 50% reduction shows that Argentina, Brazil, Ukraine and Thailand may offer breast meat at a lower price than the EU producers can. A worst case scenario would be a combination of 50% lower basic import levy and a 10% lower exchange rate which would enable all third countries in the study to offer boneless breast meat at a lower price than EU producers.

Therefore, it is AVEC's opinion that a commitment in a trade agreement is fair and justified if there is a right balance between import levies and the difference in legal standards for EU and non-EU poultry.