(ISN db/mk) – Mr Franz Meyer zu Holte, chairman of the Interessengemeinschaft der Schweinehalter Nord-Westdeutschland e. V. (ISN; community of interest of pig keepers in North West Germany, registered society), Mr Detlef Breuer, the ISN managing director and the Lower Saxony chief minister, Mr Sigmar Gabriel, met for top talks on Saturday, July 6, 2002. The meeting was held at Damme (a Lower Saxony town), where the ISN has its offices. The catastrophic effects of the latest hormone scandal which came up in Belgium and the Netherlands were discussed as well as the conversion of the EU guidelines on pig keeping into international law.

The Belgian Bioland company with its seat at Arendonk (part of the province of Antwerp) had supplied liquid glucose to the Netherlands. This was meant to be used as feed but had been soiled with the MPA hormone (medroxyprogesterone acetate). From there, approximately 7,000 fatteners had been delivered to Germany during the months of May and June. Those fatteners might have been soiled with residues of the hormone mentioned before. Out of these 7,000 pigs 5,686 had been delivered to North Rhine-Westphalia, 1,064 to Lower Saxony and 230 to Rhineland-Palatinate. The damage caused to the image of pig keepers is immense, said Mr Meyer zu Holte when presenting a basket filled with fresh sausage to Mr Gabriel. The chief minister commented on the excellent quality of the sausage saying: It’s better to have sausage from pigs from Damme than Belgian pork soiled with hormones. For that reason, he said, the north-west German pig keepers are well on the way by documenting their operational processes. Mr Meyer zu Holte noted that the quality- and production inspection north-west (QPNW) serves as a model for others.

The ISN chairman explained to the chief minister that the pig keepers are very busy with activities and initiatives of their own to make pig keeping go on in the region in future. According to what Mr Meyer zu Holte said, the ISN actively goes toward the public and makes itself available for dialogue. For Mr Gabriel, however, the costly technical conditions should not go too far, because that would result in moving away of production. And this would have severe economical consequences for the region. He said he could remember well how the region had looked when it had been one of the poorer regions of Germany.

ISN managing director, Mr Breuer, explained to the chief minister that more than 500,000 jobs in Germany depend on pig keeping. Mr Gabriel agreed to that and emphasised that in Lower Saxony agriculture is the second important factor in economy. He reported of an initiative of the land which – following the example of the American National Board – is meant to open the way for regional agriculture to Eastern Europe, upon the EU eastern enlargement. For pig keepers in Lower Saxony this would mean that an excellent long-term sales market would arise. For this reason, a regional conference would be held in August 2002. Agriculture must be understood to be a part of economic policy again, said Mr Gabriel. One should not stay with wrong ideas.

Mr Breuer, the ISN managing director, approached the chief minister about the realisation of the EU guidelines on pig keeping, which would have to be converted into national law within 2002. What the ISN demanded, is a perfect conversion of those guidelines. However, there were doubts it would do, said Mr Breuer, because Lower Saxony had not sufficiently taken into consideration the economical interests when ratifying Layer Management Act recently. Mr Gabriel’s concluding answer to that was that there will only be perfect conversion, considerable deviations are inconceivable.