As regular visitors to this site will know, we have been tracking the export of live Romanian sheep to the Middle East in recent weeks.
You can see all our articles on this, along with other live export posts at:
https://worldanimalsvoice.com/category/live-transport/
In February – Romania will once again be able to export sheep and sheep meat to Iran, according to an announcement made by the Romanian Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MADR).
Following the opening of this market, the Ministry declared that Romania will export nearly 800,000 sheep in the first six months.
The export market for (Romanian) sheep with the Republic of Iran has been opened due to the diplomatic efforts and the Government of Romania. In January 2019 the export certificate model was agreed between the National Veterinary Sanitary Authority and Food Safety in Romania (ANSVSA) and the Veterinary Organization of Iran, due to the ban on live sheep and goat exports to Iran being suspended.
To get things started, on 4/2/19 a shipment of 20 tonnes of sheep meat from Romania reached Iran. The (Romanian) export company, Agricola International, from Bacau, Romania, is in talks to send an estimated 1,000 tonnes on a monthly basis to Iran. Agricola International Bacau has unveiled plans to invest €9 million to upgrade its facilities and expand its output capacity by up to 30 per cent.
The Romanian Ministry is said to welcome this success. A very high demand in Iran of sheep and sheep meat in live is ever increasing, in a field where Romania has ample possibilities.
WAV Comment:
As an organisation which campaigns against all live animal exports; and which has recently reported in the issue of 70,000 live Romanian sheep being exported to the Middle East in temperatures up to 46 degrees; we have vey strong concerns for the welfare of any livestock being exported from Romania to Iran, especially as the Romanian Ministry declared that almost 800,000 sheep would be exported in the first 6 months. We are currently unaware of what percentage has been exported as ‘dead’ meat, and what amount has been exported live.
Note the statement above says ‘sheep and sheep meat’ – so it can only be assumed that live animal shipments have taken place.
As Romania is a Member State of the EU, when the EU politicians return from their Summer holidays in the fall, we will be writing to them and asking more about this and trying to obtain more facts. To date, EU Commissioner requests about ensuring animal welfare have been ignored by the Romanian authorities; and the EU does not appear to be very quick in taking any action against them regarding this ignorance.
So; what is the situation for any sheep exported live from Romania to Iran ? – are we going to hear just more meaningless words from the EU that are just ignored by member states; or are we actually going to see the EU do something about it all ?
Regards Mark.
Further reading:
Vessel from Romania carrying 13,000 heads of sheep denied entry after 40% found dead
By Hana Namrouqa – Jun 03,2015
AMMAN — The Ministry of Agriculture on Wednesday sent back a vessel carrying 13,000 heads of sheep from Romania, after 40 per cent of the animals were found dead, according to an official:
https://en.mehrnews.com/photo/142482/Iran-imports-sheep-from-Romania
World Animals Voice 