Page 188 of articles about meat

The recent scandal of pigs being fed with banned lean-meat producing drugs has worsened the supply shortage and pushed pig and pork prices higher, which may threaten the government's efforts to rein in inflation, experts said.

This document reflects the views of representatives of CELCAA (UECBV), CIAA (CLITRAVI and FEFAC) and Copa-Cogeca in the context of the Enlarged Pigmeat Advisory Group. The ECVC and EEB agreed on some statements but could not endorse the entire document. The Member State’s representatives took note of the proposals presented in the document.

In the first two months of 2011 imports of fresh and frozen pork into the UK totalled 56,000 tonnes, representing an increase of four per cent on year earlier figures. The majority of product came from Denmark which recorded a 40 per cent increase in shipments. Imports from the Netherlands recorded an 11 per cent decline.

Throughout the last year almost 7.5 million livestock animals were slaughtered, of which 59% were swine, 37.5% cattle, 2.2% sheep and the rest (1.3%) goat.

The Irish Farmers’ Association has today (Wed) announced a world first ‘DNA certified’ Programme for pigmeat that will expose misleading labelling and provide a guaranteed assurance for producers and consumers on the origin of pigmeat.

According to State Statistics Committee, in 2010 Ukraine produced 2922.5 thousand tons of all kinds of meat (live weight), it means 6.7% above 2009.

The news came up in a meeting held by the Minister of Agriculture, José Antonio Galilea, on an official visit to China, and the Director of the Administration on the Supervision of Quality and Quarantine of the People’s Republic of China (AQSIQ), Zhi Shuping, with whom he discussed several issues related with authorization of sending new agricultural products from Chile, to China.

South Korea has once again expanded its tariff rate quota for pigmeat imports as it looks to curb food price inflation following outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) and avian flu.

Throughout 2010 France has been confirmed as the third largest pork exporter in the EU, after Germany and Denmark. With a total volume of 730.000 tons, the French exportations have increased by 1,7%. Other EU countries continue to be the main destination with a volume of 561.000 tons (- 2,7%) while exportation to third party countries, although fewer (170.000 tons), showed an important rise (+20%).

The French Minister of Agriculture, Bruno Le Maire, met this week with representatives of producers, processors and distributors of the swine, cattle and poultry industry in order to sign a voluntary agreement between the parties with the objective of reducing the volatility of prices in the livestock sector.

During the first trimester of this year, fresh and frozen pork importations in Japan reached 187,741 tons, slightly higher than importations during the same period of last year, which reached 172,112 tons.

The Danish Parliament, the “Folketinget,” has voted by a large majority to introduce a tax on saturated fat, putting meat and dairy products in the same category as cigarettes and alcohol.

Surging pork and beef costs will keep pressure on U.S. food inflation, which the Department of Agriculture says will rise 3 percent to 4 percent this year, the most since 2008.

Exports of U.S. pork in February reached 172,022 metric tons valued at $434.4 million. For the first two months of 2011, those totals are 337,160 metric tons valued at $831.3 million, increases of 11 percent in volume and 17 percent in value. Mexico, Japan, the Hong Kong/China region, South Korea and Canada remain the top five export markets.

Canada has a long history of pork exports. The industry is served by a mature and committed export infrastructure, which includes trading houses, transportation and many other service components. Pork is a major Canadian agri-food export. Export markets account for over 50% of the Canadian hog production, which totaled 28,2 million hogs in 2008.

Personnel of the Hong Kong Department of Environment and Food Safety visited Mexico with the objective of continuing the negotiations to open the Hong King market to the exportation of poultry, pork and beef, as well as sheep and horse meat.