The will of the Spanish poultry sector to continue guaranteeing excellence and quality
The poultry sector is going through a complicated period, but the objective of Avianza, the Spanish Interprofessional Association for Poultry Meat, is clear: to continue working and highlighting the work of each and every member of the poultry sector. This is a transcendental sector for the agri-food industry (it is the most consumed meat in Spain) that bases its principles on innovation, sustainability, safety and animal welfare.
We are aware that all production sectors in our country, and also globally, are going through a critical phase. It has been going on since the beginning of the COVID pandemic and worsened in 2022 due to the war in Ukraine and the current unaffordable increases in energy costs. In the meat and poultry sector, we have to add the very strong escalation of raw materials such as wheat, barley, corn, soya... that we have been suffering since the end of 2020.
Even with this situation, the mission of Avianza and all the companies represented in the poultry sector (more than 5,000 farms, 65 integrating companies, 40,000 direct and indirect jobs) has been and continues to be to watch over the defence and quality of a priority sector in the agricultural and livestock sector in our country, where poultry meat is the most consumed meat in Spain, and represents a volume of more than 1.4 million tonnes of poultry meat produced per year.
In Spain we have an excellent production guaranteed by the European Model of Production and in which animal welfare is a main issue, together with the sustainability of all our products, food safety and Origin Spain. It is on these bases that our sector guarantees the quality of poultry meat in Spain.
At Avianza we work intensively on innovation, digital transformation and modernisation of our sector. Our farms, production and processing plants are also international benchmarks for the application of new technologies (Big Data, 5G, blockchain, cloud, ...) and the technification of procedures. We take our work and our commitment to natural food, which provides the nutrients necessary for growth and well-being of people, and which represents a healthy lifestyle, very seriously. Because food from Spain is synonymous with quality anywhere in the world.
On an environmental level, the Spanish livestock and meat sector is working in a coordinated manner to reduce greenhouse gas emissions attributable to our activity by 30% over the next few years. Energy consumption in farms and meat industries will be reduced by 38% and 22%, respectively, with the projects undertaken and the water footprint per kilogram of final product will also be reduced by an average of 18%.
A sector committed to animal health, safety and welfare
It is also necessary to highlight the great measures taken by the poultry chain in terms of Animal Health, Biosecurity and Animal Welfare, as well as the control of our animals, which follow strict prevention and detection protocols.
Our production and processing centres are maximum biosafety facilities, where the rearing of chickens and poultry meat in general takes place under conditions of permanent health control and auditing. Avianza has gone a step further and has developed, together with the other meat interprofessionals, the common B+ COMMITMENT TO ANIMAL WELFARE seal, which brings together in a unified image all the meats and products certified by the different control systems implemented in a coordinated manner by each sector. In this way, we respond to consumer demands for ethical production that respects animal welfare and we contribute to ensuring that retailers have certified products on their shelves that are identified with a single seal that guarantees best practices in this area.
All these processes are necessary and help to add value to a sector on which more than 2 million people depend in Spain, from the farmers who grow the cereals and fodder to feed the livestock, to the feed manufacturing industry, livestock farmers, meat industries, the animal health industry, veterinary professionals, the livestock and meat logistics and transport sector, auxiliary industries (agricultural machinery, livestock installations, installations for the industry, refrigeration, etc.), organised distribution (agricultural machinery chains, livestock production and distribution chains, etc.), and the distribution sector. ), organised distribution (supermarket chains and hypermarkets) and specialised retail distribution (butchers and charcuteries).
Livestock farming activity is carried out on more than 350,000 farms throughout the country and more than half of our activity is located in municipalities with less than 5,000 inhabitants. Livestock farming directly employs more than half a million people and the meat industries and retail trade employ a further 200,000 people. Livestock farming contributes 16,500 million euros to Final Agricultural Production.
In short, in Spain we have a sector that is so transcendental for society in all aspects that it is our duty to continue shouting its importance to the four winds and to continue supporting the value of what is ours.