Union building pressure over ‘illegal’ egg imports

There is now less than two months to go before a European Union wide ban on egg production from battery cages comes in and this week, NFU Scotland continued to put pressure on the European authorities to prevent eggs being imported from non-compliant producers.

Despite the fact that the European legislation was put in place in 1999, giving more than a decade to change existing systems, it is estimated that one-third of all European egg production still comes from cages that will be illegal after 1 January 2012.

A similar ratcheting up in animal welfare standards comes in the pig sector with the banning of sow stalls.

The UK took unilateral action on this a decade ago but again a large proportion of European pigmeat production still comes from such systems. In this case sow stalls will be banned in Europe from the beginning of January 2013.

That leaves Scottish egg and pig producers, who have invested heavily in high welfare, compliant systems, possibly having their market undermined by illegally produced European eggs and pork.

Union vice president John Picken said that, in the past fortnight, the union had met the head of the commission’s animal welfare unit, Andrea Gavinelli, in Brussels.

“We plan to keep up our pressure on Gavinelli and his staff over the very real danger that non-compliant lower welfare produce poses to our poultry and pig producers and the need for positive EU action to address this.”