THE FIRST CAMPAIGN TO PROMOTE SUSTAINABLE EUROPEAN POULTRY MEAT STARTS SUPPORTED BY THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION

The European poultry promotion campaign focused on sustainability begins, the first of its kind to be launched in our country. The initiative has been made possible thanks to the cooperation of the national poultry associations of Germany, France and Spain, and their framework association, AVEC (the European Poultry Association), which is based in Belgium. Likewise, the campaign is supported by the European Executive Research Agency (REA) of the European Commission.

The Spanish Interprofessional Association of Poultry Meat (AVIANZA) will be in charge of developing and implementing all the necessary actions to materialize the campaign in Spain, which will last two years. Under the motto “European poultry, your smart choice”, AVIANZA wants to raise consumers' awareness about the sustainability of the European poultry sector and the high quality of its product.

As Antonio Sánchez, president of Avianza, pointed out during the presentation of the campaign to the media at the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, “our country feels livestock farming, healthy eating and the commitment to sustainability as part of the brand. Spain. And this sustainability applied to the poultry sector means that we have been working every day and for many years to ensure that our activity is responsible in the environmental, economic and social spheres.”

Sustainability and quality, the central axes of the campaign

With this campaign, its promoters want to show consumers how the poultry sector applies sustainability in all its processes to be more efficient at all levels. With respect to the environmental field, in Europe a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of up to 15% has been achieved, thanks to better use of natural sources, feed and the improvement of breeding systems. With this, the feed necessary to feed each animal has been optimized, avoiding waste, and the land necessary to produce said feed has been reduced by 37%.

In relation to the social and economic sphere, this sector generates more than 370,000 jobs in Europe, 40,000 of them in Spain. It should also be noted that it promotes rural employment, since in the European Union poultry, both intensive and extensive production, are raised on 25,000 family farms, the majority run by women, so equality of opportunity is also promoted. gender and territorial imbalance is avoided.

And, in addition to sustainability, quality is another of the hallmarks of European poultry meat. “The poultry sector is characterized by guaranteeing animal welfare and food safety, which, added to sustainability, means that a top quality product reaches homes,” added Sánchez during his speech. As Jordi Monfort, general secretary of AVIANZA, indicated during the presentation, to show all this, “we will launch various actions that in a first phase will focus on institutional videos and spots adapted for television.”

During the presentation of the campaign, a colloquium was also held in which Carlos Garcés, president of the Spanish Association of Poultry Science and Sergio Fernández Guerrero, chef and professor at the Higher School of Hospitality and Tourism of Madrid, participated, who highlighted how sustainability is present throughout the entire poultry meat production process and reaches the restaurant.

Purificación González Camacho, deputy general director of Food Promotion of Spain, was in charge of closing the presentation and formally declaring the promotion campaign inaugurated.