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Contributions from
the Column
Monitor
Africa policy: Europe on the wrong track
World Investment Report 2005
Aid pledges for Africa to be monitored
Information summit to discuss control of internet
UN convention against corruption
Disappointing OECD guidelines
Bertelsmann Foundation rates progress
A new definition for the wealth of nations
Trade: disruptive chicken wings
IMF and World Bank endorse debt relief
Development and security: more cooperation needed
11/2005
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[ Trade ]
Disruptive chicken wings
Europeans like to eat lean chicken breasts. Many Africans, however, prefer juicy poultry with skin and bones. The EU has an excess supply of chicken parts as consumers tend to only buy breast pieces. Exporting the other parts, however, is causing trouble in Africa. According to NGO estimates, some 110,000 merchants, butchers and farmers have lost their jobs in Cameroon in the past few years, because domestic chicken production could not compete with cheap imported meat from Europe. While local poultry costs around ¤ 1,50 per kilogram on the retail market, imported chicken parts were available at two thirds that price. For domestic producers, the situation has somewhat improved after the government began enforcing import regulations. A campaign spearheaded by the Citizens Association for the Defence of Collective Interests (ACDIC) had put pressure on the government to do so. In other West African countries, however, authorities still tolerate the disruptive trade in chicken parts.
As ACDIC official Tilder Kumichii Ndichia points out, European chicken parts do not only cause economic problems but also health hazards in Africa. The meat arrives in the ports as frozen merchandise, but because of the continent’s poor infrastructure, it thaws by the time it arrives on retail markets. According to Germany’s Church Development Service (EED), a Protestant Charity, these exports do not conform with EU regulations that oblige producers to guarantee that their food items reach consumers in a safe and healthy condition. As the EED argues, however, the EU should not only enforce its own rules but generally make sure that excess products from its rich member nations do not distort foreign markets. In that sense, the issue highlights the demand of poor countries in multilateral trade talks to protect the livelihoods of those who depend on specific products (see also essay by Rudolf Buntzel on page 416). (dem)
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