March 13, 2007

EU to make chicken imports safer for African countries

The EU has pledged to help developing African, the Caribbean and the Pacific (ACP) countries develop infrastructure so they can better participate in world trade, under the auspices of Economic Partnership Agreements.

One area to be looked at is the issue of poultry imports into some African countries.

Although poultry exported from Europe are made to the same standards as those at home, there is no guarantee that the frozen products will reach consumers in the same condition.

In several West African countries, where the power supply can be sporadic, frozen chickens present a health risk as it may become partially or completely defrosted, thus allowing pathogens such as salmonella to multiply.

One of the crucial links in the consumer chain is the middlemen who experience difficulties keeping the poultry frozen.

Unlike western countries where supermarkets can keep the chicken frozen for weeks, Africa's frozen poultry are often sold in the open and is taken out from the freezer daily to be sold on the sweltering streets. This would have allowed the conditions for the bacteria to grow and multiply.

The EU plans to put these accords in place by the end of 2007 to bring ACP-EU trade into compliance with the World Trade Organisation's regulations, to ensure that such markets remained open to European goods.