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Chicken's $3.5bn import fear
28 Jun 2004
The chicken meat industry fears it may be the next farm commodity to face potential damage through relaxed quarantine barriers. Biosecurity Australia is set to release a draft import risk assessment for raw chicken meat, which industry leaders warn could reduce Australia's gross national product by $3.5 billion and result in the loss of 35,000 jobs.
The draft raw chicken meat IRA will be generic, meaning it will apply to all potential exporting countries, including the US, Thailand, Brazil and Peru.
The Australian Chicken Meat Federation fears that concessions made with the US over quarantine in the free trade agreement will allow the US a ""back door"" entry to Australia.
The federation's executive director Dr Jeff Fairbrother said there were several major disease threats to the Australian industry if imports were allowed, including avian influenza, infectious bursal disease and strains of Newcastle disease more virulent than those in Australia.
The Land, 24/6/04.
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