Beef imported into Europe: French breeders demand equal treatment
Audio 01:41
A display of beef in a butcher's shop.
Pixabay
By: Altin Lazaj
4 min
Ecologists and meat producers in France are asking the European Union to protect agricultural products in Europe against unfair competition.
They ask Brussels to force imported products to respect the same environmental rules as those in force in Europe.
Publicity
Agricultural products imported into the European Union, including meat, do not always meet the same environmental and social standards as those applied in Europe.
This is what the interbev meat industry and the Nicolas Hulot ecological foundation point out.
Both organizations take France as an example.
The Hexagon is the leading European producer of beef with a family farm model, where the cows mainly feed on grass.
This meat is more expensive than that imported from other countries such as the United States where factory farms dominate with animals that eat animal meal.
Another example put forward: the lens imported from Canada.
Less expensive and yet full of pesticides banned in Europe, the Canadian lentil is gradually supplanting the European lentils.
Meat professionals also deplore the increase in imports of food and agricultural products into the European Union in recent years, an increase which reached 28% between 2005 and 2019
Protect citizens and the interests of farmers
Faced with this situation, the two organizations call on Brussels to act as quickly as possible, starting next year on the occasion of the French presidency of the European Union.
They believe that a reform must be adopted in 2022 to impose the same environmental standards on imported agricultural products.
The aim is to protect not only the health of European citizens, but also the interests of farmers against unfair competition from these imported products.
French meat professionals estimate that the free trade agreements already concluded or under negotiation on the additional import of American, Canadian and Brazilian sirloin beef threaten up to 50,000 jobs.
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