European Union (EU) member states on Thursday endorsed further exceptional market support measures for Irish pig meat, which allows EU to co-finance disposal of animals blocked because of the dioxin scare, said the European Commission.
Under the scheme, the EU will pay on average 50 percent for the purchases of animals blocked on farms that have used contaminated feed as well as for certain pig meat stocks held in slaughterhouses or still owned by the slaughterhouses.
The aim of the disposal scheme is to help Irish authorities remove the potentially problematic relevant animals and products from the market.
The new market support measures followed last week's proposal of a private storage aid scheme for up to 30,000 tons of pig meat in Ireland. The storage scheme covers only meat coming from pigs reared on farms that have not used any contaminated feed.
On Thursday, EU member states also backed a similar private storage aid scheme for Northern Ireland, where animal feed contaminated with cancer-causing dioxin was also distributed. Under this scheme, up to 15,000 tons of pig meat can be stored for up to six months in Northern Ireland.
The Irish authorities had to recall all pig meat and pig meat products from pigs slaughtered across the country since Sept. 1, after dioxin contamination was detected in several pig farms. Pig slaughtering was also temporarily suspended. |
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