EL SECTOR AVÍCOLA SE QUEDA SIN AYUDAS DE EUROPA Y ESPAÑA MIENTRAS SUS PRECIOS CAEN UN 30% Y LA SITUACIÓN SE VUELVE INSOSTENIBLE PARA MILES DE FAMILIAS

While Europe grants aid for private storage to the sheep, goat or beef sector, only the Basque Country has adopted support measures for the poultry sector in our country.

Although domestic demand has plummeted and Spanish producers have surplus stocks on our farms, chicken imports from countries such as Poland or Italy are increasing, which have decided on a loss-making pricing policy.

MADRID, April 27, 2020. From the Interprofessional Association of Poultry Farming of Chicken Meat (Propollo: www.propollo.es), we have decided to make an institutional declaration in the face of what we consider an unsustainable situation, in response to which, although we have demanded solutions that are already being implemented in other sectors and countries, it is still not applied in an essential activity such as poultry production in Spain.

Since the beginning of the crisis caused by the effects of COVID-19 in our country and worldwide, we made ourselves available to authorities, public administrations, business associations and social agents. for the analysis and adoption of measures that will contribute to guaranteeing the supply of the population and the protection of professionals in the sector.
Additionally, we have sought solutions to minimize the effects it will have on a sector that may face losses of over 600 million euros this year.
After our announced on April 8 We continue to demand a constructive, open dialogue, but also immediate concrete solutions, since time is essential in a sector such as livestock farming in general and poultry farming in particular to avoid situations with no turning back.
Poultry meat prices are collapsing at source, while production and logistics costs rise progressively. Thus, chicken has had a sharp drop in the marketing prices of different cuts:
- Grade A hindquarters are below 0.60 euros per kg, when their normal price is 0.90-1.10 euros per kg.
- The “European channel” is below €1.50 in the market, 39% lower than what it was before entering confinement.
- In the case of turkey, the price of breast has fallen by 34%, going from €4.70 in the second week of March to €3.0 in the third week of April.
Markets such as Poland or Italy are transferring their surplus production to our country, even at the cost of being sold with losses, which further aggravates our market, where only due to the fall in tourism and the HORECA channel we have lost 25% of demand.
Poland also has its foreign market closed due to outbreaks of Avian Influenza, so it has even more surpluses.
This is being transferred to the entire value chain, starting with the farms, located in areas already very affected by their agricultural and livestock component, without other reinforcing industries.
The birds that They have no outlet on the market They are being left unslaughtered on farms, with the consequent fattening of them, which makes them unsuitable for sale. Every day counts, since more than 46 million birds are produced monthly in our country.
The costs of slaughter, transportation and processing, combined with the lack of sales, increase their losses and make them unviable.
From the beginning We have demanded financial support for cold storage of this production, in order to avoid this situation on the farms and progressively adapt our production to the current situation, thus minimizing losses.
Support measures for cold storage are being adopted in Europe for the dairy sector and for the meat sector (sheep, goats and cattle), but not the poultry.
This fact has been denounced by the associations AVEC and ELPHA in a letter sent to the European Commissioner for Agriculture, Janusz Wojciechowski, and the Commissioner for Trade, Phil Hogan, dated April 21. In Europe More than 850,000 tons of poultry meat are imported every year from countries outside the EU, mainly Brazil, Thailand or Ukraine, and these imports continue despite the fact that the drop in demand in the euro zone represents between 20% and 40%, depending on the country.
Spain also imports 234,000 tons of chicken from other countries every year. (both from European countries and third countries), agreements that are being maintained despite the fall in domestic demand.
In Spain, only the Basque Country has transferred this aid to its local companies, also including the poultry sector. These aids are included in the Official Gazette of the Basque Country, dated April 20, 2020, referring to the order of April 8, 2020, of the Minister of Economic Development and Infrastructure.
At Propollo we have requested from the Minister of Agriculture, Mr. Luis Planas Puchades, the urgent need to convey to the European Commission the immediate adoption of support measures for the poultry sector; as has already been done with other sectors, and even more so when poultry consumption represents the national 24% in production and the largest meat consumed among Spaniards.
As we stated in our communication to the Ministry, “the entire poultry chain is at serious risk of collapsing if this situation continues, so the group of companies represented here once again requests your support with the following measures:
- Financial aid for freezing and cold storage of poultry products.
- Request the European Commission to take action on the import of poultry meat from third countries
- “Support for the maintenance of reproductive strains, vital for the functioning of the sector once the crisis is over.”

Propollo It brings together more than 65 companies, with more than 5,000 farms and production centers, 281 cutting and processing plants, and directly employs more than 40,000 professionals, representing 90% of the sector.