European Production Threatened by the Influx of Ukrainian Poultry and Eggs

The Hungarian Chamber of Agriculture (HCA) and the Poultry Product Council (PPC) called for a halt to imports of Ukrainian poultry meat and eggs in a joint statement. They warned that the unlimited quantities of products arriving in the European Union not only threaten the future of EU production and Europe’s self-sufficiency, but are also a food safety concern.

While the EU poultry sector operates under strict food safety, animal health and animal welfare rules, Ukrainian farmers are not subject to EU standards, they reminded. It is understood that the European Commission’s measures in force on tariffs and quotas for Ukrainian imports have led to a significant increase in Ukrainian deliveries in recent months.

They recall that the EU quota in place before liberalization limited imports of poultry meat from Ukraine to 90,000 tons per year. According to EU statistics, in the year since June 2022, when liberalization began, the EU has imported more than 218,000 tonnes of poultry meat from Ukraine.

According to the HCA and the PPC, the egg import figures are even “more staggering”:

in 2022, four times as many table eggs came from Ukraine as in 2021, and in March 2023, the EU imported almost 100 million Ukrainian table eggs, almost as many as in the whole of 2021.

In the first half of this year, the EU imported 204% more eggs from Ukraine than a year earlier.

According to the two institutions, the war cannot justify the EU granting Ukraine political preferences that allow products not meeting EU standards and requirements to enter the EU. Moreover, the EU is not supporting the Ukrainian people, but a few oligarchs with this measure, they added.

All imported products entering the EU should be subject to the same binding and controlled legislation as the EU producers.

This should be expected not only for fair and equal competition, but also for food safety and in the interests of consumers, they said.

The poultry sector in the EU food system boasts an estimated production value of €38 billion and exports of more than €2 billion a year, providing jobs and livelihoods for more than 370,000 people.

Across Europe, 25,000 family farms raise chickens, turkeys and ducks to a high standard.

It is also in their interest that the European Commission should extend the import restrictions on cereals to poultry meat and eggs as soon as possible, they urged.

Failure to remove Ukrainian products from the internal market in the coming years will lead to a lasting and significant restructuring of the EU’s arable crop and poultry sectors, they argue, adding that this will quickly and painfully remove the agricultural barrier to Ukraine’s EU integration. The political consequences will be borne by the border countries, while the economic benefits will accrue to investors who are already looking at investment opportunities in Ukraine, warn the HCA and the PPC.

They also pointed out that

domestic poultry farmers are still feeding with forage bought at high prices last year and cannot pass on the high production costs in prices due to oversupply in Europe.

The sector’s performance has grown dynamically over the past decade and, in addition to domestic supply exceeding domestic demand by 30-40%, it is considered one of the outstanding export performers in the agricultural sector, the statement recalled.

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