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Meat with harmful substances, the demand of sausage companies that is being kept secret

Politiko 2024-10-04 21:58:13

Meat with harmful substances, the demand of sausage companies that is being kept

On September 9, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Anila Denaj, during the committee for Legal Affairs, Public Administration and Human Rights, said that the possibility of removing the meat import tax is being considered. Companies that sell processed meat, such as sausage, have asked for the removal of a tax on meat coming from abroad. These companies keep the activity alive with imported meat, since the local production does not meet the market demands.

Meanwhile, other countries in the region import this raw material with zero tax, which according to Albanian processors and wholesalers, this 10% tax creates unequal competition. And if this tax is zeroed out, what consequences could it have for livestock, which according to statistics is in its darkest days?

Ervin Resuli, veterinary expert, says that the removal of this tax in these moments when Albanian livestock does not have the proper support and subsidy would be guaranteed bankruptcy and the destruction of the entire livestock sector.

Meanwhile, the deputy The Minister of Agriculture, Arian Jaupllari, admits with little difficulty that this sector will be hit even more by the removal of the import meat tax.

In the request of the meat processors, there is also an almost invisible paragraph which has not been discussed publicly and which is related to the import of pork from Brazil, including that containing ractopamine, a substance used mainly in pigs to increase mass muscular and to reduce fat.

"If meat with residues from ractopamine goes to the consumer's table, it causes various problems of the cardiovascular system, tachycardia, problems with tension, the digestive system, poisoning, problems of the nervous system. So, the final consequences or long exposure normally have fatal consequences such as loss of life", added Resuli.

The substance in question belongs to the category of beta-agonists and is considered dangerous, so much so that the countries of the European Union, Russia, and even China, have banned the import of meat with ractopamine.

And while in the United States of America or in Canada, the injection of ractopamine is dosed on a scientific basis and with a strict control of the authorities, the same cannot be said for Brazil or Mexico, where the doses of ractopamine do not have a rigorous control. And let's not forget that Brazil is the main exporter of pork to Albania.

But is there any control in Albania for this meat, which comes to us from abroad?

Yllka Allaraj, AKU specialist, declares that only in the last two years, two samples of pork were analyzed and it turned out that they do not contain ractopamine.

It seems clear that in relation to this delicate argument, there are still many dilemmas and the law is not yet complete, but despite these uncertainties, the industrial meat processing enterprises have asked not to ban the import of pork from Brazil. According to them, the closure of imports from this country would lead to a significant increase in production costs and, as a result, the increase in product prices by 10-20%. For this reason, they have proposed that the regulation which prohibits the use of ractopamine, enter into force at the end of the process of matching the Albanian legislation with that of the European Union. Syri.net