'Mad cow' may eat away beef exports but producers optimistic

A slew of countries to Poland's east banned domestic beef imports after the confirmation of the first case of "mad cow" disease, potentially damaging small players on the local meat market. But large companies think that sales will not suffer noticeably. "Those who were to panic did it two years ago," said Tomasz Mocarski, spokesman for Morliny, a meat processing company traded on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. "I don't think the consumption of meat will drop dramatically now." Russia, Ukraine, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Croatia and Bulgaria were among countries banning or restricting local beef but one of the country's major markets, the European Union, took no action against Poland. The decisions followed Poland's first BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) case, reported in a Małopolska slaughterhouse early this month. BSE can cause a brain-wasting disorder in humans and is a danger to cattle herds. The disease, first diagnosed in the 1980s, ravaged cattle stocks in the U.K. and caused its most recent consumer scare in the last two years as cases of human BSE began to rise sharply. Poland has steadily defended its BSE detection system though it has fallen under outside criticism.

In Poland there are only five laboratories that can detect BSE. By the end of 2002, veterinary checks will have totaled 1 million tests. The infected, 9-year-old cow underwent the usual veterinary examination for BSE's presence, which is compulsory for every cow older than 30 months. "There is no reason to panic and I don't think there will be BSE epidemics in Poland," said Tadeusz Wijaszka, director of the National Veterinary Institute in Puławy. According to unofficial data, one-third of beef production is traded on the gray market - without proper veterinary checks and registration. Wijaszka said he didn't believe the number was so high but he admitted that illegal slaughtering is present in Poland. "It's hard to estimate what the scale of it is," he said. The best way to avoid the situation would be to have a good cattle registration system and stringent controls over meat traded at markets, he said. "That could have been the only solution to avoid the BSE case," he said.

Government's reaction Last week Agriculture Minister Jarosław Kalinowski appointed a special committee to monitor and coordinate actions against BSE cases in Poland. Officials from the Agriculture Ministry, Interior Affairs Ministry, Justice Ministry, Health Ministry and Chief Veterinary Office comprise the team. In an official statement, the committee said the veterinary tests system in slaughterhouses is working well, however, "the system of cattle tagging and registering requires changes because it's impossible to identify the animal's origin quickly." The committee ordered stringent controls of meat transports and sale of meat regarding its legality and valid veterinary checks.

Exports According to Agriculture Ministry data Poland exported 71,800 tonnes of live cattle and processed beef products last year. EU countries imported 33,800 tonnes, the majority of which (25,800 tonnes) was live cattle. The rest went to former Soviet countries. Morliny's Mocarski said he is not worried about the possible drop in export numbers. "These (former Soviet Union) countries are not our main export partners, so the ban shouldn't have a huge impact on our export turnover," he said. However, he added that smaller plants, which depend on exports across the Eastern border, may face difficulties due to the imposed ban. In Poland, out of 3,500 processing plants only about 20 have certificates allowing them to export to EU countries. The EU said plants allowed to process products for export to the EU are under rigorous scrutiny and the risk is minimized. "Apart from regular veterinary checks, EU test teams come several times a year and test our meat," Mocarski said. According to the government commission, the export ban by other countries should not have a big impact on beef trading - provided it's no longer than a month. At the market According to Katarzyna Szczypiło, spokeswoman for France-based hypermarket operator Auchan, the sale of beef hasn't dropped as much as two years ago but there has been a slump after Poland's BSE case. "We don't have specific research concerning beef sales but it has decreased a bit over the last few days," she said.