Meat producers asking Ukrainian government to set imported meat quotas
Ukrainian meat producers are asking the Ukrainian government to settle the problem of imports of meat by setting quotas, as well as consider the possibility of increasing the import duty on pork and products made of it.
"We ask you to introduce a pork and poultry imports regulation system via setting quotas and applying methods of tariff and non-tariff regulation, in line with the current rules of the WTO [World Trade Organization]," reads a letter of the associations which unite poultry and pork enterprises in Ukraine to Ukrainian Premier Mykola Azarov, which was published on Wednesday.
The document says that poultry and pork producers are very alarmed at the large increase in imports of meat and meat products in 2012, which are pushing Ukrainian-made products out of the market.
They said that while in 2011 average monthly imports of pork totaled 12,200 tonnes, last year they were 22,700 tonnes, and in January 2013 they stood at over 15,000 tonnes, which is twice up year-over-year.
"The share of large pieces of frozen meat, salo, bristles, fat and by-products, which are not used in the exporting countries due to their low nutrition effect, is 70% of total imported pork," reads the letter.
The similar situation is with imports of poultry, which volumes last year almost doubled, to 116,000 tonnes. The key share of imported poultry is low-grade poultry (43% of mechanically deboned poultry and 15% of by-products).
"The growth in the volumes of pork imports is accompanied by the refusal of meat factories to take fattened pigs from pig farms and private households, which leads to the excess consumption of fodder, a reduction in the number of pigs and could affect the food security in the future," reads the letter.
The associations also ask the government to ban imports of mechanically deboned meat, trimmings, bones, salo, by-products and other low-grade meat, strengthen control over the customs clearance of meat and allow its import only if extended safety control measures are used, and importers have licensed warehouses.
