March 18, 2011

Russia's import meat quota being allocated

The remaining 75% of Russia's meat import quota has been allocated in advance to local importers.

These allocations were initially set to be distributed on April 15.

The initial 25% of the 2011 meat import quota was distributed in late 2010, but a large percentage of this share was used in the final months of the year, when importers bought large volumes. For the final three months of 2010, shipments from Australia averaged in excess of 9,000 tonnes/month.

Although shipments from Brazil in February were considerably high (totalling 21,126 tonnes), traders in South America have reported a slowdown in prices and volumes quoted from Russia also impacted shipments from Australia. Shipments have also been limited due to low quota shares remaining.

However, the early release of the remaining quota allocation is expected to speed up enquiries and trade.