Avian flu: Commission proposes poultry market support

22/06/06 The management committee for eggs and poultry has approved a Commission proposal to allow the co-financing by the EU budget of measures to support the poultry market, because of the negative effects of the recent avian flu crisis. The proposal specifies the type of measures which can be 50 percent financed by the EU. It focuses on “upstream” measures, i.e. those which aim to temporarily reduce production, such as the destruction of hatching eggs. It sets a maximum level of compensation per unit destroyed as well as the maximum number of units per Member State and the time period covered by each measure. The Commission does not propose co-financing of “downstream” measures such as aid for private storage or the destruction of existing stocks of poultry meat. Some 14 Member States have applied for EU support for their poultry sector. The expected cost to the EU budget of the measures proposed is between €50 and €65 million.

“The dramatic decline in poultry consumption and prices earlier this year was an extraordinary situation which required extraordinary measures,” commented Mariann Fischer Boel, Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development. “I believe our proposals will give farmers the flexibility to adjust their production to the market situation without prolonging market imbalances unnecessarily. I am against aid for private storage and the destruction of stocks of meat. Thanks to the recent improvement in the market situation, the industry should be able to use existing stocks.”
The measures which can be covered are as follows:

· The destruction of hatching eggs;
· Processing of hatching eggs;
· The destruction of chicks (of chicken, guinea fowl, duck, turkey and goose);
· The early slaughter of some of the breeding flock;
· The extension of periods of temporary non-production beyond three weeks;
· Voluntary reduction in output by reduced placing of chicks;
· Early slaughter of ready to lay pullets.
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The following Member States have requested aid measures:
Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Spain, France, Ireland, Italy, Cyprus, Hungary, the Netherlands, Austria, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia.

At the height of the recent avian flu crisis, consumption of poultry and eggs fell dramatically in some Member States, leading to a sharp reduction in prices. Previously, the regulations governing the eggs and poultry market allowed the EU to co-finance compensation measures only in cases where there was a case of avian flu on a farm or where farmers were prevented from moving their poultry because of restrictions imposed on veterinary orders. There was no possibility to provide EU aid to take account of market problems linked to a fall in sales caused by a loss of consumer confidence.