EU lifts ban on poultry from India

A long-standing ban on imports of poultry meat from India has been lifted by the European Union.

The decision was published in the Official Journal of the European Union, and covers the importation of ‘meat products, treated stomachs, bladders and intestines, prepared from fresh meat of domestic poultry, including meat of farmed and wild game birds’.

According to the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), part of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry within the Indian government, the European Commission is to implement an amended model health certificate, to be issued by the Export Inspection Council of India (EIC), for the export of these products.

A transition period - up to 30 September 2014 - will be allowed for consignments of meat using the existing health certificate, provided that the certificate was signed before 30 July, it said.

Doctor Ashok from the Poultry Federation of India told GlobalMeatNews that the lifting of the ban was welcome news for the broiler market, which is stable at present.

The ban was originally brought in due to fears over the spread of avian influenza.

Meanwhile beef and buffalo producers and exporters in India are fearful that additional export controls could be brought in following the election, with the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) party led by Narendra Modi, predicted as being victorious.