As part of its long-term policy to stimulate domestic consumption of pork, the Hungarian government has introduced a reduced value-added tax (VAT) on pork offal, taking it from 27% to 5%.
The Czech Republic’s beef and poultry meat production is on the rise, but its meat market remains dominated by imports from EU member states, according to the Czech Statistical Office (CZSO).
Poland’s exports of processed pork meat have returned to growth in the first four months of 2015, with an increase of 6.5% to 128,600 tonnes (t), according to the Polish Ministry of Agriculture.
Belgium’s agriculture minister Willy Borsus signed a memorandum with Chinese authorities this week that could see the number of Belgian companies exporting pork meat to China increase in the next few months.
The European Commission stood by its position on Friday (30 January) that the European Union (EU) member states were united regarding talks with Russia about the possible lifting of the latter’s ban on EU food products such as pork meat.
Ukraine has lost some US$4 million (€3.2m) in revenues following Russian cattle and pork meat import restrictions imposed in 2013 and 2014, according to data provided by the European Commission (EC).
Growing fears over the widespread use of antibiotics in farm animals helped to drive a fall in demand for imported meat in Sweden in the first half of 2014, but Russia’s EU food trade ban might reverse that trend, said experts.
As of yesterday (Monday 7 April) Russia has effectively extended its African Swine Fever (ASF)-justified ban to include processed pork meat products from Poland and Lithuania, two Polish members of the European Parliament (MEP) have revealed.
Romania will be allowed to export pork meat to the European Union (EU) from all of its commercial pig holdings from New Year’s Day (2014), the country’s National Sanitary Veterinary and Food Safety Authority (ANSVSA) has announced.
