June 1, 2005

Russian inspectors to visit Brazil's slaughterhouses

A group of Russian experts will be inspecting about 200 slaughter-houses and poultry farms in Brazil that supply meat products to Russia, beginning on Tuesday till the end of July.

Russia's Agriculture Ministry has abolished the temporary embargo on meat supplies from most Brazilian states because of the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease there. However, the embargo will still be in place for meat supplies from the states of Para and Amazonas.

Brazil is currently the largest beef and pork exporter to Russia, supplying 35 percent of the beef market there and 74 percent of the pork market. For poultry meat, it is the second largest supplier at 26 percent.

According to Brazil's Ministry of Agriculture, the export of meat and meat products to Russia reached $867 million last year, 14 percent of Brazil's total export of meat.

Despite the imposed embargo, in 2004, pork exports to Russia reached an all-time high of 288,000 tonnes of pork.