Copa and Cogeca, the farming and agri-cooperatives organisations in the EU urged EU agriculture ministers on Thursday 11 May to have the “unjustified” restrictions imposed by Ukraine on EU exports of live pigs, pork and other pig products lifted (see EUROPE 11786).
At a meeting on Thursday with Maltese Secretary of State for Agriculture, fisheries and Animal Rights Roderick Galdes, Copa-Cogeca Secretary General Pekka Pesonen said he supported ministers’ efforts to stop the spread of African swine fever and initiatives to eradicate the disease which is also found in Ukraine, Belarus and Russia.
“But we have serious concerns about Ukraine’s refusal to accept our principle of regionalisation so that products are only banned in the region where African swine fever occurred”, Pesonen said. The EU is already treated as a single entity when it comes to imports and it also needs to be treated as a single entity when it comes to our exports, he argued. “Ukraine wants better access to our markets but restricts our access to their market which I find difficult to accept”, he concluded. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)