The Polish meat industry has embarked on a charm offensive in the UAE amid the ongoing fallout from the horsemeat scandal.
Earlier this year it was discovered that foods in Europe that were advertised as beef contained undeclared horsemeat and pork.
Some of the UK's largest supermarkets were embroiled in the scandal, which also reached Ikea, after it found horsemeat in a batch of meatballs on sale in Europe.
In Ireland, the first European country to report the presence of horsemeat in beef products, the government claimed to have traced the source of the infected meat back to suppliers in Poland.
But an envoy of Polish organisations at the launch of a campaign to promote European meat in the UAE yesterday denied that meat producers from their country were responsible.
"We are not connected to the reprocessing. We don't have any negative results of investigations which we are [conducting] at the moment in our country," said Andrzej Lysiak, the first counsellor for the Polish Embassy in Abu Dhabi.
The president of the Association of Polish Butchers and Producers of Processed Meat denied any involvement on the part of his members.
"No Polish company is involved in this horsemeat scandal. It doesn't come from Poland," said Zbigniew Nowak. "In our companies we have to have clear evidence of not only what is inside the meat but also the producer that the meat comes from. All meat has a passport and the production of the meat is very rigorously followed."
But Poland's chief veterinarian admitted late last month that horse DNA had been detected in three meat processing plants, according to Polish radio.
The president of the Polish Meat Association, Witold Choiski, said it was too early to blame meat processors from the country, which could have received contaminated meat from other suppliers, reported the radio station.
But it seems that not all food producers are convinced.
Meat exports from the country have declined by 30 per cent this year, according to the Polish Meat Association.
Poland exports US$152 million (Dh558.3m) of agricultural products to the UAE annually, which includes meat products.
The new European meat campaign, which is targeting the UAE, Russia and China, aims to boost the figure. The initiative is financed by the European Union and Poland.
"Our country is a very famous producer of agricultural products and the quality is also famous all over the world. That is why Poland is so proud to export its products also to the United Arab Emirates," said Mr Lysiak.
