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Red meat imports to resume amid health concerns in market
The Turkish red meat market has experienced unprecedented price increases for the past few weeks. Some parties have suggested that the government lift a ban on red meat imports, instituted eight years ago as a result of the mad cow disease scare, while others said the best solution to address the current shortage would be an increase in stockbreeding. Turkey does not allow imported meat into the country out of health and safety concerns.
Çağlayan said the government will allow the EBK to import and sell red meat and livestock since the problem persists. His remarks come a day after Agriculture Minister Mehdi Eker’s announcement that the EBK would be authorized to intervene in the issue. The government is known to have been conducting studies into possible solutions to the high meat prices following Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s recently reported order to “handle the red meat issue.”
The state-owned Meat and Fish Institution will soon begin livestock and red meat imports following a government decision. The decision arrives amid wedespread safety and health concerns in the market. Representatives of the Turkish red meat market suggested that allowing red meat imports would deal a major blow to Turkish animal breeders |
According to the government decision, the EBK will import livestock and red meat and then resell these to the industry. The institution is expected to commence red meat imports following market research and studies to ease the safety and health concerns of the public. Many Turkish consumers are concerned about whether they can be sure imported red meat products are halal -- prepared in accordance with Islamic law.
Red meat imports a major blow to producers
Representatives of the Turkish meat industry reacted negatively to the decision, suggesting that allowing red meat imports would deal a major blow to Turkish stockbreeders.
Mehmet Alkan, head of the Turkish Veterinary Medical Association (TVHB) said Monday that the harm that red meat imports would do to the Turkish livestock market would be hard to overcome: “It is not the solution, to allow red meat imports. We fear that imported red meat will pose a major threat to public health and to the future of the domestic livestock industry.” He emphasized that the government may face serious difficulties in sorting out high-quality and healthy red meat from foreign sources since “no country is keen to export quality red meat, and the priority will be on relatively lower-quality products.”
Recalling that Turkey is one of the five countries to be free of any serious threat of animal diseases, Bursa Veterinary Association head Sinan Sağlam said it will take years before the country would be able to detect and eradicate any possible disease from imported livestock and red meat. “The government should not bow to demands for red meat imports. … This will only be a temporary solution,” he explained. Some companies were accused of delaying the slaughter of large numbers of animals to create a need for imports.
Meanwhile, Competition Authority President Nurettin Kaldırımcı on Monday denied recent allegations that certain groups were creating monopolies in the red meat market. Speaking to reporters in İstanbul, Kaldırımcı said they had been receiving complaints of increasing monopolization in the red meat market over the past few weeks and eventually decided to research the issue. “The preliminary results from this study show no sign of a cartel in the red meat market. We did not find any sign to this end.”
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