Serbian chicken farms not eligible for export of eggs to EU

Serbia cannot yet export chicken eggs to the European Union, nor can it transport them over that territory to third countries, said director of the Business Commission for Poultry Production, Rade Skoric.

According to him, eggs are now exported from Serbia to Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Montenegro, and recently, after 30 years, to Albania. At the end of last year, about 800,000 pieces were exported to Equatorial Guinea, they were transported by plane in four flights because the country had a shortage, but, as he said, such transport is not cost-efficient.

Serbia is not yet able to export eggs to the EU, nor to transport them through that territory to another country until it meets the requirements on animal health, food safety, it opens a control laboratory and meets the requirements on animal welfare.

In order to meet the requirements of the Ordinance on Animal Welfare, farmers must, according to Skoric, replace the existing cages, for which the deadline has been extended several times, and the last one expires at the end of December this year.

As close as possible to the natural environment

In order to meet the requirements of the Animal Welfare Act, the owners of chicken farms must provide new cages for breeding hens, which should have more space per hen than before, it should be increased from the current 550 square centimeters to 750, then provide a special space where they would have nests for carrying eggs, instead of, as now, carrying them throughout the cage.

EU regulations also provide that the conditions in the cages are as similar as possible to the natural environment, the height of each floor of the cage must be increased by 20 centimeters, the cage must have flow water, bars that would imitate a branch on which they can „sit“, part of the space must be imitation of green lawns and there must be space arranged for the sharpening of nails and beaks.

There are 1,100 registered chicken farms in Serbia where about four and a half million chickens are grown, and there are about three million more in household farms. The production by smaller farms that were shut down due to the low price of eggs during the pandemic was compensated by the increase in the capacity of larger farms.

Izvor: Beta

Foto: Pixabay