STARTING WITH JANUARY 1ST, 2012 Valeriu Tabără: We will be allowed to export pork meat to the EU

Romania will be allowed to export pork meat to the European Union (EU), starting with January 1st, 2012, Valeriu Tabără, the Romanian minister of Agriculture.

"I have received confirmation from the Commission that the restrictions on the export of pork meat to the EU will be lifted. Agriculture commissioner Dacian Cioloş also called me to confirm. The notification comes from Brussels, all that is left is to complete the bureaucracy part. We will also receive this notification in writing. It is an extraordinary thing, we have been waiting for this news for a long time. In the passing of this decision, an important role was played by pig farmers, the professional associations, our mission in Brussels and Commissioner Cioloş".

Minister Tabără said yesterday, that the lifting of this restriction will lead both to the recovery of the pork meat market, and to an increase in added value in the grain sector, which will result in a trade surplus in the foodstuffs segment: "For years we have been forced to import pork meat, or else we would have been unable to export cold cuts. We import 35-37% of the pork meat that we need. The fact that we will be allowed to export this product to the EU will be beneficial for our relationship with the EU third party countries, which used to penalize us for this drawback".

Valeriu Tabără said that Romania would export to the EU countries tens of thousands of tons of pork meat annually, starting next year.

Deliveries of meat and processed pork meat products were restricted in 2003, because Romania used vaccination to eradicate the classic swine fever.

In 2007, the European Commission decided to extend the restriction imposed on Romanian companies concerning the deliveries of meat, as it considered that the swine fever is not being kept under control yet.

The minister said that the authorities have identified optimal methods to protect farms and pig slaughterhouses, if the swine fever were to break again: "If this happens, we have the ability to isolate the contaminated spots, without the export being affected. Also, we will need to have our labs ready at anytime to conduct the analyses". He expressed his hope that all producers would join this system, saying that it is hard enough to do this for all hog farmers.