Romania introduces licensing for import of eggs and poultry meat from Ukraine

After complaints from its farmers about dumping prices, Romania has extended import licensing to such goods from Ukraine as eggs and poultry meat.

Euractiv writes about it, Ukrainian News Agency reports.

Romanian Agriculture Minister Florin Barbu said after a government meeting, that Romanian poultry producers are facing "serious problems" due to imports of eggs and poultry meat from Ukraine, which are sold at prices far below Romanian production costs.

According to him, after discussions with representatives of the poultry industry, the government decided to add eggs and poultry meat to the list of products that can be imported from Ukraine only with a license.

"It is our duty to protect Romanian production," Barbu explained.

He added that grains, seeds, flour and sugar also made the list.

Barbu also emphasized that there is no ban on the import of Ukrainian eggs and poultry meat.

"We took this licensing decision to ensure that when the food industry needs these products and Romania is not fully self-sufficient, only Romanian processors can import them under license," he added.

After the European Commission decided in September 2023 not to extend the ban on the import of Ukrainian grain to five neighboring EU countries (Bulgaria, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Hungary), Romania introduced licenses for the import of grain and oil crops from Ukraine and Moldova. This measure, introduced last October, has been extended.

According to this decision, only Romanian companies engaged in the production of oil and fats, flour mill production, animal feed production and livestock breeding are allowed to import agricultural products from Ukraine or Moldova.

As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, Bulgaria demands from the European Commission to ban the import of eggs from Ukraine.