TheMeatSite Newsletter - 19 January 2011

TheMeatSite Weekly Newsletter

Wednesday 19th January 2011

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Welcome to this week's newsletter

Editorial: Warning over Decline of EU Meat Sector

The European farming federation Copa-Cogeca has warned that a new EU Commission report on medium-term prospects for agricultural markets shows a sharp decline in EU market shares in the meat sector, partly as a result of costly EU regulations.

Meat exports are expected to decline by almost 23 per cent by 2020 while imports are predicted to increase by as much as 14 per cent.

While there is concern over the declining fortunes of the EU meat market there was some good news as both the Philippines and Malaysia ended their bans on beef products from the EU that had been imposed because of concerns over BSE.

However, in Switzerland researchers at the University of Zurich report that airborne prions are also infectious and can induce BSE or Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease. The researchers recommend precautionary measures for scientific labs, slaughterhouses and animal feed plants.

The concerns over the German dioxin feed contamination are spreading across Europe. There have been fears that some contaminated meat products might have been sold in the Czech Republic and Poland and Slovakia has joined the countries banning the sale of German poultry products.

Federal states have agreed on tough measures, including possible prison terms for offenders, in an effort to prevent a repeat of the dioxin scandal.

US beef has been removed from sale by two retail chains in Taiwan following the finding of a banned feed additive in the meat.

There was good news in the US, as November exports of US pork and beef reached their highest monthly volumes in more than two years.

Chris Harris

This Week's Feature Articles

We have 6 new features this week:

More Market Declines in US Market Pigs
By Chris Harris, Editor-in-Chief, ThePigSite. Our snapshot of the ongoing global pig industry trends as reported in Januarty 2011 Whole Hog Brief. To read the full detailed analysis including all the commentary and graphical data, subscribe to the publication.

Livestock Farmers Have a Beef over Pricing Report
The vice president of the French national farming federation FNSEA, Christiane Lambert, has slammed "administrative zeal" on the part of economist Philippe Chalmin for his first outline report on the pricing of beef, writes Peter Crosskey.

Quicker Pathogen Detection
When government and industry were looking for a way to identify more rapidly the presence of the pathogenic Clostridium perfringens bacterium in food and water, Daniel Fung of Kansas State University realised he had a potential solution on his shelf.

United Kingdom Pig Meat Market Update - January 2011
The decline in prices continued in the UK during November but levelled off in December according to James Park, senior economic analyst with AHDB Meat Services Economic and Policy Analysis Group in his latest trends for the UK and EU.

BPEX Export Bulletin - January 2011
The British Pig Executive's (BPEX) Export Bulletin for January 2011 reports that European markets have been quiet at the beginning of the year, but the dioxin scare in Germany is starting to affect trade there.

World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates - January 2011
Production of beef and poultry is expected to rise this year, but pork production could fall, according to the latest USDA World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates.