March 14, 2013

Thus, the share of US pork in the market could be taken by South American countries and in particular by Argentina.

Russia's Federal Veterinary and Phytosanitary Service (Rosselkhoznadzor) said that the Argentinean Ambassador to Russia Juan Carlos did not rule out this possibility during a meeting with Rosselkhoznadzor's chief and co-chair of the Russian-Argentinean intergovernmental commission for trade-economic and scientific cooperation, Sergei Dankvert.

"The ambassador agreed increasing deliveries of meat from Argentina to Russia, especially given that the US, which supplies the Russian market with 140,000 tonnes of beef and pork a year, has rejected Russia's demand that ractopamine be absent," a Rosselkhoznadzor statement says.

Argentina is currently not an active supplier of pork to Russia. In recent years local producers have exported on average about 10,000 tonnes of pork to Russian market. According to experts if the Russia/US ractopamine dispute remain unresolved in 2013 this figure could rise 3-4 times.