By Chris Borowski
GOLINY, Poland The abattoir in this
small town in western Poland has a special dormitory to house the more than 30
Jewish men designated by Israel's chief rabbi to oversee the production of
kosher beef there.
Since the slaughterhouse received permission to export
to Israel five years ago, thousands of bulls were herded inside the building
and one of three designated individuals, using a specially chosen knife,
severed their trachea, oesophagus and major blood vessels and bled them to
death ~ in the method that is common to kosher and halal butchery.
With beef consumption falling in Europe and many other
markets closed to new players or dominated by Brazil and other South American producers,
Polish abattoirs saw Israel and Arab countries in the Middle East as the best
opportunity for growth.
Poland exports 90 percent of its beef, a third of
which was kosher or halal worth some 1 billion Euros $1.3 billion (847 million
pounds).
But this booming industry has ground to a halt
because, after a campaign by animal rights activists who say the method of
slaughter is cruel, Poland's constitutional court banned the practice and this
month its parliament rejected an amendment that would have allowed the
slaughter to resume.
Parliament's unexpected decision caused an outcry
among Jewish groups around the world, who said banning kosher slaughter was an
infringement of religious freedom.
They said anti-Jewish prejudice played a part ~ a
stinging accusation against a country where Nazi Germany killed millions of Jews during
World War Two.
But in the Biernacki slaughterhouse in Goliny, 350 km
(217 miles) west of the Polish capital Warsaw, the fallout was about the
economic cost of banning kosher and halal meat production.
"We still cling to the hope politicians will
reconsider," said Tomasz Kublik, the company's chief executive. "If
nothing changes, we'll shift production to lower margin meat products and may
need to let go of many of our workers."
The family-owned company, which processed as many as
18,000 heads of cattle each month, became Poland's top producer of kosher and
halal beef, with about half of its production sent to Jewish and Muslim clients
abroad.
HISTORIC CONNECTIONS
Poland, the home of a large Jewish community before
the Holocaust, enjoys historical connections with Israel that made it easier to
win business there.
Polish meat producers, who have the advantage of
lower production costs than most European rivals, have also seen a rising
demand in the Middle East following the Arab Spring, which boosted the role of
religion in many countries there.
Biernacki, which exported 40,000 tonnes of beef to
Israel annually, also sought to tap the large Arab communities in European countries
like France,
where it became the largest importer of Polish beef with its halal meat.
Since kosher and halal meat carry higher margins,
Biernacki was able to raise the prices it was paying farmers within a 150-km
radius for their cattle, encouraging more to invest in buying animals for meat
production.
When the government failed to push through the
amendment eliminating the ban on kosher meat production, Biernacki and other
abattoirs immediately slashed the prices offered for cattle by as much as 13
percent.
Some farmers still cling to the hope that the
constitutional court will rule the ban violates religious rights of Jews and
Muslims, but say they must reconsider whether to continue raising cattle after
a plunge in pork prices devastated thousands of farms several years ago.
"I face a dilemma whether I should buy new calves
and I have no idea what I should do right now," said Jan Szyszka, a farmer
who owns some 100 heads of cattle. "At current prices I am losing money on
every animal I sell (to a slaughterhouse)."
Polish farmers still mainly own cattle for dairy
production and sell young bulls to those who raise them for meat. The animal is
usually slaughtered after two years, which means heavy upfront spending for its
owner.
But animal rights activists say no price tag can be
put on stopping a cruel method of slaughter. They argue Poland's entire kosher
and halal meat industry was built on an overly broad interpretation of EU law,
which in most cases bans the killing of animals with stunning them.
"The exception (to meet the needs of religious
communities) wasn't created for a member state to build a huge business of
producing meat for exports outside the European Union," said Dorota
Wiland, the head of animal rights group Ius Animalia.
No comments:
Post a Comment
If your comment is not posted, it was deemed offensive.