USDA report on the EU poultry sector

In September 2003 the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service released its annual review of the EU poultry sector. According to this report the EU poultry market is now stable after recovery from the avian flu outbreak. Export refunds were introduced for turkey meat to all destinations except the USA and Estonia, but there were no changes to export refunds for other poultry meat. Changes in the market are expected in response to 'the January 2003 announcement by Russia of its tariff-rate quota, which is expected to limit imports of beef, pork and poultry' and in the longer term the implementation of the CAP mid-term review proposals and EU enlargement. Comment: The Russian decision to limit imports of beef, poultry and pork through a TRQ system could leave considerable volumes of EU poultry meat looking for new markets. The impact this could have on ACP poultry sectors, particularly in west and central Africa will be determined by the extent to which these markets can directly replace former Russian markets. Already in west Africa there are growing complaints over increased EU poultry exports, which have arisen on the back of EU cereals-sector reform (which has substantially reduced EU poultry production costs). The openness of many west African and central African markets to poultry meat exports from the EU may spell severe problems for local poultry producers in a context of reduced EU exports to Russia.In September 2003 the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service..