Romania introduces licences for imports of eggs and poultry meat from Ukraine
10 October 2024 16:36
Following complaints from its farmers about dumping prices, Romania has extended import licensing to goods from Ukraine, such as eggs and poultry. This is reported by Euractiv, "Komersant Ukrainian" informs.
Romanian Agriculture Minister Florin Barbu said after a government meeting that Romanian poultry producers are facing “serious problems” due to imports of eggs and poultry from Ukraine, which are sold at prices far below Romanian production costs.
According to him, after discussions with representatives of the poultry industry, the government decided to add eggs and poultry meat to the list of products that can be imported from Ukraine only with a licence.
“It is our duty to protect Romanian production,” Barbu explained.
The list also includes cereals, seeds, flour, and sugar.
Barbu also emphasised that there is no ban on imports of Ukrainian eggs and poultry.
“We made this decision on licensing to ensure that when the food industry needs these products and Romania is not completely self-sufficient, only Romanian processors can import them under licence,” he added.
After the European Commission decided in September 2023 not to extend the ban on imports of Ukrainian grain to five neighbouring EU countries (Bulgaria, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Hungary), Romania introduced licences for imports of grains and oilseeds from Ukraine and Moldova. This measure, introduced in October last year, was extended.
According to this decision, only Romanian companies engaged in the production of oil and fats, flour milling, animal feed and livestock production are entitled to import agricultural products from Ukraine or Moldova.
