THE POULTRY SECTOR LEFT WITHOUT AID FROM EUROPE AND SPAIN WHILE ITS PRICES FALL BY 30% AND THE SITUATION BECOMES UNSUSTAINABLE FOR THOUSANDS OF FAMILIES

While Europe grants aid for private storage to the sheep, goat and cattle sectors, 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 are increasing from countries such as Poland and Italy, which have decided on a policy of prices at a loss.

MADRID, 27 April 2020. From the Interprofessional Association of Poultry Meat (Propollo: www.propollo.es), we have decided to make an institutional statement in view of what we consider an unsustainable situation, against which, although we have called for solutions that are already being implemented in other sectors and countries, they are still not being 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 have made ourselves available to the authorities, public administrations, business associations and social agents for the analysis and adoption of measures that would contribute to guaranteeing the supply of the population and the protection of professionals in the sector.
In addition, we have sought solutions to minimise the effects it will have on a sector that may face losses in excess of 600 million euros this year.
Following our communiqué of 8 April, we continue to call for constructive, open dialogue, but also for immediate concrete solutions, as time is of the essence in a sector such as the livestock sector in general and the poultry sector in particular, in order to avoid situations with no way back.
Poultry meat prices are plummeting at originThe production and logistics costs are rising steadily. Thus, chicken has seen a plummeting market price for different cuts:
- Grade A hindquarters are below 0.60 euros per kg, while their normal price is 0.90-1.10 euros per kg.
- The "European carcass" is below €1.50 in the market, 39% lower than it was before entering confinement.
- In the case of turkey, the price of the breast has fallen by 34% 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 production surpluses to our country, even at the cost of being sold at a loss, which further aggravates our market, where due to the fall in tourism and the HORECA channel alone we have lost 25% of demand.
Poland has also closed its foreign market due to outbreaks of Avian Influenza, so it has even more surpluses.
This is being transferred to the entire value chain, starting with farms, located in areas already heavily affected by their agricultural and livestock component, with no other supporting industries.
Birds that have no market outlet are being left unslaughtered on farms, with the consequent fattening of the birds, which makes them unsuitable for sale. Every day counts, as more than 46 million birds are produced in our country every month.
The costs of slaughtering, transporting and processing them, combined with the lack of sales, increase their losses and make them unviable.
From the beginning , we have demanded economic support for the cold storage of this production, in order to avoid this situation on the farms and to progressively adapt our production to the current situation, thus minimising losses.
In Europe, support measures for cold storage are being adopted for the dairy sector and for the meat sector (sheep, goat and beef), but not for the poultry sector.
This fact has been denounced by the associations AVEC and ELPHA in a letter sent to the European Commissioner for Agriculture, Janusz Wojciechowski, and to the Commissioner for Trade, Phil Hogan, dated 21 April. More than 850,000 tonnes of poultry meat are imported into Europe every year from countries outside the EU, mainly Brazil, Thailand and Ukraine, and these imports continue despite the fact that the fall in demand in the Eurozone represents between 20% and 40%, depending on the country.
Spain also imports 234,000 tonnes of chicken from other countries every year (both European 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, including the poultry sector. This aid is listed in the Official Gazette of the Basque Country, dated 20 April 2020, referring to the order of 8 April 2020, of the Regional Minister for Economic Development and Infrastructures.
From Propollo we have asked the Minister of Agriculture, Mr. Luis Planas Puchades, the imperative need to transfer to the European Commission the immediate adoption of support measures for the poultry sector, as has already been done with other sectors, especially when poultry consumption represents 24% of national production and the largest meat consumed among Spaniards.
As we state in our communication to the Ministry, "the entire poultry chain is at serious risk of collapse if this situation continues, so all the companies represented here once again request your support with the following measures:
- Financial aid for the freezing and cold storage of poultry products.
- Call on the European Commission to take action on the import of poultry meat from third countries.
- Support for the maintenance of breeding stocks, which are vital for the functioning of the sector once the crisis is over".

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