Minister Kosarac: Chicken Meat Exports to the EU have not been suspended

Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations of Bosnia and Herzegovina Stasa Kosarac stated that the exports of poultry meat, products and eggs for processing from BiH to the European Union have not been suspended or threatened.

He stated that in the past period, there were various misinformation and speculations about the ban on the export of chicken meat and industrial eggs to the European market, among other things, mentioning the possibility that BiH will be left without licenses for export to the EU on March 31. There will be no export ban so that domestic poultry farmers continue to place their products on the EU market without hindrance, Kosarac explained.

According to minister, one of the obligations of BiH when it comes to the export of poultry meat and poultry meat products to the European market is to conduct testing for certain infectious diseases.

“Difficulties arose due to the unenforceable and inadequate decision from 2005 on the designation of reference laboratories in BiH, which were supposed to perform these tests. That decision is not in line with EU standards. Unfortunately, the previous structure of the Ministry completely ignored the problem, which is completely inadmissible and unacceptable,” said Kosarac.

“Appreciating the needs of our export-oriented poultry, we continuously cooperated with the EU Delegation to BiH, the European Commission and the competent European laboratory in Venice, and finally came to an ad hoc solution, which ensures continued unhindered export of chicken meat to the EU,” said Minister Kosarac.