The pig breeders of Romania want the ban on live pigs export to the European Union lifted, given that no swine fever cases were reported in Romania for almost eight years. The European Commission should reconsider its stance on the matter, the ProAgro Federation of farmers claimed in a release to AGERPRES on Wednesday.
On January 26, the National Sanitary, Veterinary and Food Safety Authority (ANSVSA) hosted a meeting of the working group for the alteration of the Decision 2013/764/EU that might unblock Romania’s live pig exports to EU member states. The reunion was attended by representatives of two representative associations, the Romanian Association of Cattle, Sheep and Pigs Breeders and Exporters (ACEBOPR) and the Romanian Pork Producers Association (APCPR). They proposed the ANSVSA to remove of Romania from the Decision’s Annex, which would lead to unblocking the national trade with live pigs to other member states. On Thursday, the two associations will present the members’ viewpoints on the amendments proposed, and the draft of the new decision jointly agreed upon will be negotiated next week with the members of the European Commission.
The pig farmer members of the ACEBOPR have succeeded in unblocking the live pigs’ trade to non-EU countries in 2013.
On January 18, Agriculture Minister Achim Irimescu discussed the issue in Brussels with the European Commissioner Vytenis Andriukaitis (Health and Food Safety), who promised to support Romania in resuming its intra-community exports of live pigs.
The supply of pork meat and processed products from Romania had been banned by the EU in 2003, as Romania still used vaccines to eradicate classic swine fever. In 2007, the European Commission extended this ban until December 31, 2009. The last swine fever outbreaks of Romania were recorded in 2007, when over 50,000 pigs were killed and destroyed.
According to the National Institute of Statistics (INS), at end-2014 Romania was ranked 9th in the EU with a livestock of 5.041 million pigs, after Germany (28.33 million), Spain (26.55 million), France (13.29 million), Denmark (12.7 million), the Netherlands (12.06 million), Poland (11.26 million), Italy (8.6 million) and Belgium (6.35 million). More….