A Polish trade delegation is currently trying to restore access to the market, and representatives have insisted that Poland did not break the veterinary rules of the Customs Union. They have claimed that Poland was frequently getting blamed for scandals that were actually the result of poor veterinary standards in other EU countries.
“A few months ago, there were claims that the Polish companies added horsemeat to beef products. But then it turned out that it was not about Polish meat, because in Poland horsemeat is much more expensive than beef. Two years ago, there was a serious crisis with dioxin in meat. But that time it also was not Poland, but another big European country [Germany],” claimed Lucjan Zvolak, vice-president of the Agricultural Market Agency of Poland.
“In fact Polish food is some of the best in the world, and I say this not because I am a representative of the agency, but because of the facts – there has never been a situation in Europe where Polish agricultural products caused any serious emergency.”
He added that, two weeks ago at a meeting of the heads of Poland and Russia’s ministries of agriculture, it was stressed that Polish products were safe and met all of Russia’s veterinary requirements.
Another representative of the Polish trade delegation, who did not want to be named, told Globalmeatnews.com that the problem lay in the fact that EU veterinary legislation permits the re-export of meat products from other countries by Polish exporters, and local veterinary services often do not have the mechanisms to limit this process.
However, they added that Polish companies expected a speedy resumption of a full meat trade with Russia.