Domestic chicken, although its quality is at a high level, has a hard time fighting with imported chicken, mostly with that from Turkey, and BiH poultry farmers especially warn about the way of declaring these goods.
“We have a top-quality product whose main ingredient in the food is corn, which is somewhat different from Europe because there is often wheat there. The quality of the meat we have is much better than in many parts of Europe. On the other hand, we also have standards, such as halal, which is very popular in Europe. We strongly object to defrosting, which is even punishable by law, once frozen goods can only be defrosted once and never again. We have serious problems there. Inspections fight it, but not to the extent that we would like to. What is the most imported from Turkey? On paper, it is machine-boned meat, but in reality it can often be other things, that’s a problem. The declaration often does not accompany the shipment,” says Edin Jabandžić, president of the Coordinating Committee of Poultry/Poultry Farmers BiH.
Bosnia and Herzegovina signed interstate agreements with Turkey and opened its borders to it, according to the Veterinary Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina, among other things, for the import of this type of product.
“How did we protect our producers? Well, in such a way that we allowed only frozen chicken fillets that are intended for processing and not for consumption, i.e. for consumption in restaurants and in some other places, to be imported from Turkey. The problem arises at that moment when such a decision is misused. We have already observed this and certain inspection bodies of the entity have determined that these products are being consumed, i.e. used in a way that is not allowed. How can we help? Well, we have helped in such a way that we are very rigorous in issuing permit for the import of meat and meat products from Turkey,” said Saša Bošković, director of the BiH Veterinary Office.
Poultry farmers intend to discuss the problems that plague them at the international congress that will be held in Banja Luka from May 10 to 12.
More than 20,000 workers are employed in this area, and unlike chicken meat, domestic consumption eggs find their way to Bosnia and Herzegovina more easily, but also European, because the company “Agrex” from Donji Žabar is the only one from Bosnia and Herzegovina that has access to the European market.
“Admittedly, eggs can only come from BiH for industrial processing, and until this moment we were present on the Croatian, Italian, Slovakian, and Czech markets, and even now the needs are opening up when it comes to Austria and Hungary. Given the problems that happened on the European market, a shortage is felt and opportunities are created for increased exports, but we only export reduced or limited quantities to the foreign market, keeping the domestic market as the most important, essential and long-term market we are interested in. At best, we have never exported more of 20 percent of our total production,” said Predrag Miličić, director of “Agrex”, Akta reports.
