Congo : the long journey of European food products sold on the Kinshasa market:

Eggs under the Congo Sun

However, she accepts that she buys the Dutch eggs at 1,200 Congolese francs the tray; cheaper than the local ones which she buys at 1,500 Congolese francs. But they are not as fresh: they turn bad after only one week and sometimes the importer quickly has to replace them.

This surge of imported eggs from Holland, Germany and Belgium, most of which come through the port of Antwerp, is causing considerable anxiety for the local egg producers. UNAGRICO, the Union of Farmers and Breeders of the Congo, approached the authorities to condemn the unfair competition of the refrigerated eggs imported from Europe. Only last year, a few commercial farmers and a good number of family poultry breeders produced and sold 5.6 million fresh eggs each month. Today, however, these producers are faced with the lower prices of the food importers, Sodeic, Gercom and Congo Futur, who trade through the exporting company Alphagroup, based in Waalwijk in The Netherlands. This company deals with the commercialisation of the excess subsidised food products of the European Union, such as eggs, powdered milk, butter and vegetable oils.

The matter of dumping European farming surpluses on Africa is not new, though it is more problematic in the case of refrigerated eggs. In fact we have in our possession a document that shows that 3,600 cartons of eggs from Holland, produced on the 28^th August 2002 with a sell-by date of the 28^th February 2003, were judged to be "fertile, altered and unfit for consumption" upon inspection. Mesophile and toxic infections, problems of liquefaction and formation of embryos were all found in other lots that were seized in a warehouse.

One does not need a scientific laboratory to realise that eggs, laid in August, packed and placed in containers, transported at a temperature of 5° and sold in December under the Kinshasa sun at a temperature of 35°, would not be at their best!

The retailers, however, do not complain because they buy the eggs cheaper than local ones. UNAGRICO, acting in the name of local producers, has complained about the deficiencies of the Congolese office which should control these imports, pointing to acts of fraud which class fresh eggs as impregnated eggs and thus tax-exempt. They also want to know exactly where these eggs come from and how they can be sold cheaper than local eggs, despite the added costs of packing and transport. They recall that in May 2002 thousands of laying hens were seized and killed and thousands of eggs destroyed because they contained a cancer-causing herbicide, Nitrofène, banned in the European Union. They point to the scandalous affaire of the Belgian company Bioland that touched 15 European countries.

The representatives of UNAGRICO defend the local producers, where poultry breeding is the only source of revenue for many families, as well as the health of the consumers. They are pressing the authorities to tighten up their controls and to follow closely the itinerary and the length of the refrigerated eggs’ journey. They are also asking the United Nations mission to buy locally rather than to bring in refrigerated eggs from South Africa. The local daily newspaper, "Le Phare" points out that there may well be a connection between the import and sale of these eggs with diamonds and the war. It is known, in fact, that the commerce of basic food products brings in huge quantities of Congolese francs which are then used to buy diamonds which in turn are resold legally.