August 14, 2020

Taiwan's poultry sector calls for equitable imports label requirements

The Poultry Association of Taiwan on Tuesday called for poultry meat imports to be clearly labelled with the slaughter date to compete fairly with the local poultry sector, Taiwan News reported.

The Taiwan FDA has responded with the announcement that the change will be adopted next summer.

Poultry Association Secretary-General Wang Chien-pei said that the market share of imported poultry in Taiwan has increased to 40% over the last three years, CNA reported.

The chairman of the association, Chen Kou-tsun, said that while the date of slaughter must be displayed on the labels of domestic poultry, this is not currently required for imported poultry. With the prices of imported poultry meat only about half of their domestic counterparts, vendors can pass off imported meat as a domestic product to increase their profits.

Imported poultry products at big-box stores are generally labelled with the country of origin and date of expiration, but they do not list information on when the birds were killed. Taiwanese care a lot about whether poultry is fresh, but imported poultry products do not reveal all the related information, Chen said, adding that some imported poultry is not even labelled with the country of origin.

Chen pointed out that the status quo has created an unfair obstacle for domestic poultry and threatened its survival. Therefore, the association asked the Taiwan Food and Drug Administration (Taiwan FDA) to step up labelling for imported competition.

The Taiwan FDA met with the Poultry Association on Monday (August 10), with the agency saying that beginning July 1, 2021, all imported poultry, both fresh and frozen, will be required to contain information about the country of origin, date of slaughter, and expiration date, CNA quoted Chen as saying.