The Association of Beef Cattle Breeders is organizing a protest action outside the Ministry of Agriculture on Tuesday against the Ministry’s regulatory changes increasing payments to the Food and Veterinary Service (PVD) and introducing an export tax on cattle, the organization said on social media.
According to the organization, it has dumped a pile of manure in front of the Ministry of Agriculture building and has also put up several posters with slogans.
Raimonds Jakovickis, chairman of the association’s board of directors, said that the regulatory changes were being pushed through without consulting the sector and without taking into account their impact on the sector’s competitiveness in Europe.
“It is clear from reading the rules that this is a brazen attempt to increase the budget of the PVD by increasing its price list for issuing certificates for exported animals several times and introducing a new fee. We do not support this as there is no logical justification for this change,” said Jakovickis.
The association pointed out that in recent years the amount of work to be done by PVD inspectors has been significantly reduced at the expense of exporters – the system has been computerized and most of the work is done by the farmers themselves. Similarly, the imposition of a new fee on cattle from three months of age is not to be supported as it will have a significant impact on the competitiveness of the sector in Europe.
“I would like to stress that neither Estonia nor Lithuania levy additional taxes on export animals. In Latvia, meat farming is mainly export-based, which means that the application of a tax literally threatens the viability of the sector,” stressed Jakovickis.
Jakovickis noted that the changes in the regulation are being made without involving and informing the sectoral organizations.
