By Gemma Lougheed - 28th February 2006
France’s reputation as a luxury food supplier is under threat as fears over avian flu provoke further poultry import bans.
Twenty countries including Japan, South Korea, Morocco, Egypt Thailand and Saudi Arabia have so far blocked French poultry exports, worth €400m a year.
France is the largest poultry producer and exporter in Europe and the fourth-biggest poultry exporter in the world.
Saudi Arabia is France’s biggest poultry importer.
French trade minister, Christine Lagarde, damned the growing number of import bans, after the deadly H5N1 strain was found in domestic poultry, as alarmist and unnecessary.
“We regret the moves. It’s an emotional response of national protection,” said Lagarde, echoing French President Jacques Chirac’s earlier call for calm.
“There is no danger in eating poultry and eggs,” Chirac said during a Paris agricultural show last weekend.
“There is no point in provoking hysteria.”
The World Health Organisation (WHO) on Monday also appealed for calm, saying that cooked poultry cannot transmit bird flu.
“The WHO confirms that when poultry products are safely handled and properly cooked, humans are not at risk of acquiring H5N1 infection through food,” the UN agency said in a statement.
“Globally, the evidence demonstrates that there is no risk of infection when birds and eggs are well cooked, as this kills the virus.”
UN secretary general, Kofi Annan has told governments to be prepared for a worldwide pandemic as France held a televised emergency simulation involving infected air passengers.
The H5N1 bird flu virus was confirmed in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Georgia on Monday with the virus also spreading from Nigeria to Niger in Africa.
France began vaccinating 900,000 farm birds in High flu risk regions.
Meanwhile, Poland has set aside over €40m to compensate its 1m tonne a year poultry sector.
Polish demand has fallen by 20-30 per cent since the start of the year - even though bird flu has not been detected in the country to date.
And German officials and farmers are questioning the policy of vaccinating poultry as well as the effectiveness of antiviral drugs like Tamiflu.
Have your say...
Please enter your comments below.