Packers accuse farmers of low quality meat

LIEPAJA (BNS) - Although producers would like to give maximum support to the use of domestic products and cut down meat exports, Latvian farmers are still unable to compete with Estonian pork breeders, said Aigars Orlovskis, a member of the Meat- Packers Association and director of the meat packing company Bulls.

Orlovskis said Latvian farmers cannot prepare meet in accordance with European standards. Bulls Marketing Director Maris Kravalis also says the meat from Latvian farmers is full of bone splinters and simply cannot be used to make good-quality products.

Bulls uses 100 percent domestic beef in its production but still imports about 40 percent of pork.

The increased customs duty on pork imports had resulted in a 25 percent rise of cost price, but so far meat packers have not raised prices because the competition in the market is very severe.

Or maybe because many of them resort to using meat of uncertain origin and low-quality additives, Kravalis suggests. Bulls, which uses only carcasses and natural additives, urged the Meat Packer Association to establish uniform national trade marks to guarantee the products' compliance with certain quality requirements.

"There cannot be two Doktora Desa sausages with the price per kilogram differing by 1 lat [$0.58]. In that case one of them must be fake," Kravalis pointed out.

Uniform trademark by-laws had already been prepared, he said.

The Meat Packer Association also decided to establish a task force which would identify all meat-packaging facilities operating in Latvia. According to provisional figures, their current number is 161.

As the sales have contracted due to loss of the eastern market, there is no place for all of them in Latvia, Kravalis noted. The compliance of all meat Packers with quality requirements should be inspected with the veterinary service.