EU says no to extensions on poultry cage ban

EU Commission officials have emphasised that there will be no extensions for any member state when new rules banning the use of conventional cages come into force on 1 January 2012.

The commitment was delivered to NFU poultry board chairman Charles Bourns and British Egg Industry Council chief executive Mark Williams, in Brussels to discuss measures to safeguard the UK market. They fear that up to 13 member states will be producing illegal eggs in 2012, whereas the UK will be 100% compliant.

“We asked the commission if there would be any derogations, and they said no,” Mr Bourns told Poultry World after the meeting.

There was also an acknowledgement that there would still be hens in illegal cages after 1 January 2012, he added, though the commission puts the estimate at 17m birds, while the BEIC believes there will be 83m – equivalent to 23% of the EU poultry flock.

“Whichever figure is right, or if it is something in between, we still need to ensure that our market is not undercut by illegally produced eggs.”

The NFU and BEIC therefore stressed the case for an intra-community trade ban, to ensure that eggs produced in illegal cages after 1 January do not leave the country in which they are produced.

“There are difficulties with the traceability of imported eggs and egg products, and liquid egg will be even harder to police once removed from the shell,” said Mr Bourns.

The commission responded that, if there was to be any kind of trade restriction, it would have to be agreed by member state governments. It also agreed that it made no sense to slaughter millions of hens when EU consumers needed those eggs. But it had no specific proposal for dealing with the problem.

The NFU/BEIC called for the EU’s Food and Veterinary Office to be strengthened and to ensure all member states have robust inspection procedures in place. “We have also told the commission to initiate infraction procedures against member states with non-compliant producers,” said Mr Bourns.

The good news was that every member state had at least started the process of converting from conventional cages, he added. And with the EU-wide poultry sector having spent over 5bn euros so far on changing their systems, it was fair to say that the industry was “on the home straight”.