June 9, 2005

USDA: Turkey hopes to export poultry to EU by year-end
 

The Turkish poultry industry is aspiring to start exporting poultry meat to the EU. Recent EU inspections of the domestic industry were perceived to be quite positive, and some sources expect exports to begin this year. However, there are outstanding technical issues that need to be addressed before the EU will approve imports of Turkish poultry.

Last September, a delegation of the EU's Food and Veterinary Office inspectors surveyed the Turkish industry and assess governmental controls.

According to industry sources, the FVO report favorably the developments in the industry.  However, there are still two points where improvements are needed. First, the analytical record keeping is insufficient. Second, residual controls are inadequate.

Turkish authorities and industry representatives seem optimistic about the results of the inspection. Although they believe that the deficiencies can be eliminated within several months, they assume the final decision will be a political one. Turkey has been banning imports of both red meat and poultry from all sources since 1996, even though Turkey is supposed to import 19,000 MT of red meat from the EU countries annually, according its Customs Union agreement. 

Turkish poultry meat production totaled nearly 1 MMT in 2004 while total poultry exports from Turkey were about 17,000 MT from Jan to April 2005. The compatibility of the Turkish poultry sector in the international markets is very limited because of its high production costs, primarily feed costs. Feed accounts for about 65 percent of the production costs. 

The Turkish poultry sector was also hurt earlier this year due to claims that hormones were being used in the production process. Processors were forced to sell at prices lower than production cost, which is about YTL 2.20 (approximately USD 1.60) per kilogram. 

For full USDA report, click here.