October 31, 2014

Belarus' pork production in the first eight months fell 21.6% year on year to 113,000 tonnes and managed to export only 8,000 tonnes during the same period as the country's pork sector experiences a crisis.

Experts said farmers were discouraged from raising more hogs as it had become less profitable because of higher feed prices and low pork prices at the start of the year. The government also imposed tough measures to stop the spread of the African swine fever (ASF), which gave logistical problems to the industry.

Rosselkhoznadzor has banned the import of all products from two companies that it said had supplied ASF-contaminated meat. One of these is Minsk Meat-Processing Plant, Belarus' largest meat exporter.

Yevgeny Nepoklonov, deputy head of Rosselkhoznadzor, said Russia has also enhanced laboratory control over all pork products imported from Belarus.

Belarusian Agriculture and Food Minister Leonid Zayats, however, defended Minsk Meat-Processing Plant, saying it "is located in a safe area, and raw materials, which could contain the ASF gene, cannot be supplied to the enterprise."

Belarus, meanwhile, sees exports to Russia reaching 150,000 tonnes to 200,000 tonnes in 2016 as it is building 11 new industrial pig farms to boost the country's pork production. Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko said his country expects to produce 485,200 tonnes of pork in 2016, or thrice the current production level.