Belarus struggling to meet EU poultry standards

After visiting two poultry farms in Belarus, EU veterinarians have concluded that the country’s chicken has enough quality for European consumers but there are still a number of weak points to the production process, which producers must fix immediately.

The Belarusian Department of Veterinary and Food Supervision stated that the remarks of European experts concerned the method of growing, keeping and killing of birds.

“There were not any notes on the quality of meat, but there were questions about the methods of growing chickens and its keeping. Currently we agree with these comments,” officials from the department explained, adding that European inspectors even shared experience about how to make poultry meat more qualitative with the owners of Belarusian poultry farms.

“We have chickens kept in cages – in tiers, while in Europe they keep them as a family – with a certain number of females per one male bird. They believe that in this way the chicken becomes healthier and it is less susceptible to stress.” In the coming months the Belarusian poultry farms plans to modernise production processes to make it in accordance with the requirements of EU experts. Moreover, European veterinarians gave some advice on the killing of chickens, so the bird don’t suffer, which also affects the quality of meat.

The country hopes to break into the European market in 2013/14.