December 11, 2009

Russia to impose new meat safety policy by 2010

Following a recent meeting of the Russian Security Council the President of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev, instructed the government to design a new policy to ensure meat and food security of the country before April 1, 2010.

In accordance with the policy the future level of meat production in Russia should reach 80-90%, however today these figures, according to statistics, do not exceed 40-50%.

According to analysts, Russiais still not able to provide itself with several types of meat, especially beef, due to the absence of beef cattle in the country.

In addition, analysts also say that the ongoing meat import restrictions pose a threat of rising prices for certain types of meat by two or three times.

Most of developed Western countries do no have any official doctrines, similar to one considered by the Russian authorities.

However, in the US, for example, there is a non-governmental association acting on the problems of the domestic meat and food industry, with the participation of local congressmen and senators.