The poultry industry in BiH has been recording growth of production and export year after year. According to the Foreign Trade Chamber of BiH, the coverage of import with export of poultry products in 2015 amounted to 138 percent. Last year, BiH exported table eggs worth four million BAM, while the import amounted to two million BAM. Key markets for poultry are Serbia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro and Albania, and BiH is increasingly exporting to Australia, UAE, Kuwait and Surinam.
While the poultry sector is recording growth, the state fights to obtain permits from European Union for the export of table eggs.
According to the Director of the Veterinary Office of BiH Ljubomir Kalaba, BiH got 12 recommendations from the DG Health and Food Safety of the EU which should be fulfilled in order to export eggs.
“We have already formed the legislative framework which includes regulations from the so-called ‘hygienic package’ and regulations for the salmonella control. Both entities harmonized the legislative and now we have an opportunity to fulfill recommendations from the EU,” Kalaba said.
According to Kalaba, analysis of salmonella is being conducted by authorized laboratories in BiH with the use of accredited methods of analysis.
“With the adoption of the Regulations on the salmonella control and the Regulations on microbiological criteria for food, the legislative framework has fully complied with the EU legislative, which also includes methods which are to be used in the implementation of laboratory analysis for salmonella,” Kalaba said.
For example, the European Union requested from farms in Serbia to have “enriched coops” for the breeding of hens, where the hens would have the imitation of natural environment. Kalaba said that such a request was not posed to Bosnia and Herzegovina.
“That will not be a limiting factor in obtaining permission for exporting to the EU,” Kalaba said.
(Source: ekapija.ba/photo: poslovni.hr)
