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Article: EU poultry farmers call for action on imports to avert oversupply
05 May 2020
This article is taken from our IEG Policy platform dated
01/05/20.
In a letter sent to the EU's Directorate General for Agriculture
(DG AGRI), EU farmers' and cooperatives' association Copa-Cogeca
warns that the closure of hotels, restaurants and catering services
is already causing problems for the industry.
Without this channel, some high-quality segments have been
strongly affected: duck, pigeon, quail, rabbit, guinea fowl and
goose.
Even though consumers are still buying chicken and turkey meat
in retail outlets, these markets have also been impacted.
As previously reported by IHS Markit, broiler prices have fallen
sharply in recent weeks - most notably in Poland, the EU's largest
poultry producer.
Signed by Copa and Cogeca secretary general Pekka Pesonen, the
letter says retail sales are not sufficient to offset the loss of
the HORECA channel.
"This situation will cause an oversupply crisis from the
moment restaurants, hotels and catering are open again, as
consumers will not go to eat out of home twice as much as they did
before the crisis. This will put tremendous pressure on price" -
Charles Bourns, Copa and Cogeca
Markets for egg products have also been hit by the closure of
out-of-home food services. At the same time, demand has risen for
shell eggs sold in retail, leading to some shortages.
The sector has also signalled problems with transport for
hatching eggs and day-old chicks, and limited availability of some
types of feed, such as organic soy.
With large volumes of frozen chicken still being imported from
third countries, Copa and Cogeca say poultrymeat is piling up in
freezers across the EU.
"This situation will cause an oversupply crisis from the moment
restaurants, hotels and catering are open again, as consumers will
not go to eat out of home twice as much as they did before the
crisis. This will put tremendous pressure on price," warns Charles
Bourns, chairman of Copa and Cogeca's poultrymeat and eggs working
party.
The letter calls on the Commission to manage tariff rate quotas
(TRQs) in a way that avoids an 'oversupply crisis'. For eggs, it
suggests trade flows could be constrained by ensuring that third
countries strictly comply with the aim of existing trade
agreements.
The EU is already in the process of opening up private storage
aid for beef and dairy and Pesonen wants the Commission to consider
doing the same for poultry. He also calls for specific measures to
help maintain parent and grandparent stocks to avoid disruptions
within the sector.