Export certification was suspended last May after an EU audit detected breaches in compliance with their regulations on poultry production.
Last Monday, the Chilean Ministry of Agriculture announced that after lengthy negotiations led by the Chilean Agricultural Livestock Service (SAG), the European Union (EU) reopened its market to Chilean poultry, for which certification had been suspended since last May.
Earlier this year, and coinciding with the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, the EU audited Chile and detected some breaches in compliance with the bloc’s regulations for poultry production. Because of this, and as a precaution, SAG decided to suspend the certification of poultry for that destination market.
The Chilean Minister of Agriculture, Antonio Walker, said that “this is excellent news for our country, as it will allow us to resume exports of these products to one of Chile’s main markets at a time when we need to boost trade more than ever.”
SAG’s National Director, Horacio Bórquez, stated that “today we got very good news, which resulted from the joint effort we immediately initiated with the private sector to respond to the corrective measures requested by the EU’s health authority (DG Sante) as soon as possible. These measures were accepted by Europe, thus allowing us to resume shipments to this key market.”
In turn, ChileCarne’s President, Juan Carlos Domínguez, underscored the relevance of the public-private effort to achieve the reopening of the EU market. “Exports are the driver of the Chilean poultry industry, and therefore, more and better access to foreign markets is vital for the country and for our industry,” he stated.
Chile exported 20,713 tons of poultry to the European Union in 2019, which represent exports for 75.8 million USD, according to SAG.
Source: La Tercera Newspaper
