January 8, 2010

Russia's meat bans extend to Germany and France

Pork exports from 17 German and two French pig slaughterhouses have been suspended by Russia.

Russian authorities detected antibiotic residues and salmonella in pork supplied by those slaughterhouses, which led to the ban.

Also on the ban list were two meat processing plants and cheese dairies in Lithuania.

This follows weeks after some US meat plants were banned from supplying their products to Russia, due to antibiotic residues and the use of chlorine treatment on US poultry. The US protested furiously, and the two countries are now in talks so as to resolve the issue.

Russia plans to increase pork production by 2.7 million tonnes or by one-third by 2012, with further plans to invest EUR2.5 billion (US$3.6 billion) into the domestic pork industry. This is expected to significantly decrease Russia's dependence on imported pork.