Brussels, 10/03/2014 (Agence Europe) - Polish pork producers from the regions affected by African swine fever will be compensated for their losses, Polish Agriculture Minister Stanislaw Kalemba announced after his meeting with European Commissioner for Agriculture Dacian Ciolos, and his counterpart for Health, Tonio Borg, in Brussels on Friday 6 March. Article 220 of Regulation 1308/2013 of the common market organisation (CMO) authorises compensation to be co-funded at a level of 50% from the EU budget in the event of economic loss due to a loss of consumer confidence (the meat has been tested and is not contaminated, but consumers do not want to buy it).
The compensation will be awarded only to farmers in the buffer zone set up last month along the border with Belarus and Lithuania, where two cases of African swine fever were detected among boars. It will be paid for equally by the national budget and the EU budget. Following the discovery of outbreaks of African swine fever in Lithuania and Poland, Russia imposed an embargo on imports of pork meat from the EU. Prices in Poland fell, as this lost pork producers their main export market.
The compensation will cover the differences in the sales price. Other measures, such as storage aid, are also being looked into, announced Kalemba (who is strongly in favour of triggering this private storage aid), and will be used if the crisis is continues. (LC)