Green Light From EU To Poultry Farmers

Poultry farmers have been promised more aid from the European Union to support the slump in the market of poultry sales.

The European Commission has agreed to release more EU funds to help its member states support the market which had a slump of upto 70 percent in poultry meat and egg sales.

Until yesterday the EU aid could only be used for farms, which had undergone an outbreak of bird flu itself, or for farmers who were unable to send their produce to the market owing to veterinary restrictions.

According to Agriculture Commissioner, Mariann Fischer Boel this unprecedented situation could only be tackled by a co-financing by EU of improved market measures. One of the primary steps could be to compenste farmers for veterinary precautionay measures of reduced production.

The proposals include financing half the cost of measures to help market sales, probably by the end of April. Member states would then have to give proposals on required aid for the market.

Following the outbreak of the avian influenza Italy reported a drop in poultry sales of almost 70 percent while France reported a market slump of 15 percent.

Since the European commission had no centralized information about market sales of poultry they had to rely on reports from member states.