Poland lawmakers vote to ban export of unstunned meat end-2025

Poland’s Senate has passed amendments to a new animal protection bill that includes banning the export of unstunned meat at the end of 2025.

The Lower House of Parliament in September adopted an Animal Welfare Act prohibiting the export of “ritually slaughtered” meat, which refers to the killing of animals for meat without first stunning them. This method is largely adopted by some halal and kosher communities and companies.

The Upper House’s vote last week effectively postpones the ban to the end of 2025.

The Polish Press Agency reported on Oct 14 the Senate Speaker Tomasz Grodzki as saying that the senators’ main purpose was to find a compromise between animal protection needs and the needs of agriculture.

Salim Kessentini, Export Director and the halal officer at Poland’s largest poultry producer Grupa Cedrob, told Salaam Gateway last month that 30% of Polish poultry is exported as halal, 60 to 70% of which are non-stunned.

Grupa Cedrob slaughters one million birds a day, of which over 200,000 are halal, according to Kessentini.

Poland exports mostly poultry to countries of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. In 2019, it sold $56.341 million in poultry to OIC countries, up from $52.892 million in 2018.  

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