June 5, 2007

Russia won¡¯t introduce meat import license

After a government meeting headed by Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradhov on June 1, Russia has decided to not introduce licensing of meat import and alter meat quotas to keep earlier agreements with the EU and World Trade Organization.

A Russian official said the country will instead focus on smuggling and on domestic production. Struggle against smuggling is the country's top priority as it stands behind unfair competition. He said Russia would clamp down on illegal sales, imports and poor quality of meat and meat products.

He added meat should not be made a political issue, referring to Poland's argument against Russia on banned Polish meat.

He went on to say that the problem should be tackled together with neighbouring countries, such as Belarus, which has no customs border with Russia but had also banned meat products from Poland.

Meanwhile, Russia's agriculture minister Alexei Gordeyev expects an increase of the country's poultry by 16 percent to 1.8 million tonnes in 2007. The Russian poultry sector has registered production of 1.550 million tonnes in 2006.