A new Sustainability Charter is to be developed for the European Poultry Meat Sector, after the 150 members of AVEC (The European Poultry Meat Association) voted in favour of the measure at the recent general assembly.
The charter will be published at the beginning of 2022.
The debates at the general assembly in Berlin focused on the sustainability of the sector, in the context of the Green Deal and EU Farm to fork strategy, with a lively exchange between speakers.
The General Assembly concluded AVEC’s President, Paul Lopez, presenting the so-called “Berlin Declaration” in which the Sustainability Charter was announced.
AVEC said it intended to demonstrate the European Poultry Meat is part of the solution in the fight against climate change by developing concrete solutions to improve the sustainability of the sector. The sector aims at finding a balance between the 3 pillars – Environment, Social and Economy to establish true sustainability.
AVEC’s Secretary General, Birthe Steenberg, made clear that “the level of commitment of the EU poultry meat sector is highly dependent on the willingness and capacity of the EU Commission to defend the sector from unfair competition from third countries. It is of huge importance that the efforts implemented in EU poultry meat sector – which will raise the production costs – are not met with a counter effect of larger imports of poultry meat from third countries. We produce meat in a very climate smart way in Europe – so importing more meat from third countries will in the end lead to higher GHG emissions globally.”