Poultry trade prospects will be on the agenda during this week’s visit to China and Japan by EU farm commissioner, Phil Hogan, accompanied by more than 60 agri-food executives from 15 member states, including representatives from AHDB who will be looking after UK interests.
The week-long visit, which began on Saturday will include meetings today with China’s agriculture minister, Han Changfu; trade & industry minister, Zhang Mao, and the launch in China of “European Restaurant Week”. Tuesday’s programme will include discussions on food safety issues
The EU party will then move on to Tokyo for another round of meetings, including a session between Mr Hogan (pictured above) and Japan’s farm minister, Moriyama.
“China and Japan are particularly important markets for the EU agri-food sector which have shown considerable growth in recent years,” said Mr Hogan. “I hope that these promotion events will highlight the quality, traditions, and added value of our products, as well as our food safety and traceability guarantees, and stimulate further interest from Chinese and Japanese consumers in European food and drink.”
He said that he wanted to build on existing trade flows and show that Europe is open to business, in particular for agri-food products.
“My hope is that I can also make some progress on a number of hindrances to current trade,” he said.
In addition to poultry interests being covered several individual company delegates, the sector will be given prominence during the week by the involvement in the visit of representatives from the Polish National Poultry Council.
