Danish parliament questions special status of chicken

Danish Member of the Parliamentary Committee for Food, Agriculture and Fisher-ies, Mette Bock, has questioned the Danish application for a special status for salmonella in chicken meat.

At the annual Poultry Congress for the Danish Poultry Industry on 6 and 7 February 2013, in Brædstrup, Bock of the Liberal Alliance party was invited to speak about the future of the Danish Chicken Industry.

She said, that Denmark will have to make up with always having to set the bar higher than any other EU country without thinking of the consequences, namely that Denmark put themselves outsides the market. Her clear message was that Denmark should open up to the EU and using EU instead of asking to get special rules launched.

Bock noted the recent developments in the Danish Chicken Industry, which clearly shows that Danes are increasingly eating foreign chicken meat while self-sufficiency falls dramatically. At the end of her speech, she asked the question to the audience if they still believed that it would be beneficial for the Danish Chicken Industry to have a special status for Salmonella in chicken meat. The silence in the audience can in this context be perceived as there are serious doubts in the Danish Chicken Industry whether it is a good idea with a special status for Salmonella in chicken meat.

Self-sufficiency from 2006 to 2011 in Denmark decreased from 157% to 135%, corresponding a negative trend of 14,0%. In Germany the figures are 86% to 108%, representing an increase af 25,6%. Holland has gone from 173% to 205%, representing an increase of 19,2%, the same rate as for Hungary. Poland has grown by 14,3%. Sweden has an increase of 11,8% and England has grown by 9,5%. These figures show that Denmark’s Chicken Industry is under pressure.

It is EuroDan Poultry Forum’s vision that the Danish Chicken Industry must be contest skilled with the rest of the Chicken Industry in EU. The Danish Chicken Industry should be conducted in accordance with appli-cable uniform EU rules and the Internal Market in freely and openly function. Therefore EuroDan Poultry Forum strongly opposed introducing special status for Salmonella in Danish chicken meat, which means Denmark can close a door to most of the EU, if imported chicken meat does not have the same standards as the Danish chicken meat.

The development has had an evident influence on the Danish Chicken Industry and has caused complica-tions for foreign and Danish chicken companies who wish to conduct activities across the border between Denmark and other EU countries.

EuroDan Poultry Forum welcomes therefore very much that a Danish Parliamentarian now has brought up to debate the Danish application for special status for Salmonella in chicken meat.