To further avoid an increase in meat prices, a Cabinet decision has abolished customs duties on animals imported from the EU. Published in the Official Gazette, the amendment to the EU-origin Agricultural Product Import Tariff Quotas specifies that customs duties are excluded from live cattle and some other portioned bone-in meat that originated in the EU. The customs duty is still being applied for breeding cattle, buffalo and tame animals, however. Previously, a 30 percent customs duty was applied to 5,000 tons in total of more than 19,000 tons of the meat import quota allocated by the Meat and Milk Authority (ESK). A 40 percent customs duty was then applied on more than 14,000 tons of the leftover amount.
The ESK asserts that red meat should be sold to customers for 27 percent below the current market price. Regulating the market would be a better solution than intervention, sector specialists suggested, highlighting the importance of streamlining the meat supply. They also stressed that importing and stockpiling meat will not be sufficient to address the rising prices.
Previously, Turkish Red Meat Producers Association President Bülent Tunç said blaming producers for the high meat prices is unjust, as they sell red meat for TL 25 ($8.84) per kilogram, which is then sold for TL 40 per kilogram at markets and butchers. Tunç suggested price regulations should be introduced to prevent markup pricing done by the intermediaries, and that the ESK should have livestock available to supply the markets whenever needed. The upcoming Eid al-Adha holiday, also known as the Festival of Sacrifice, will cause a boost in demand for red meat; therefore, the prices were not responsive to the intervention efforts prior to the removal of the customs tax on red meat imports from the EU.
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