December 28, 2006

Russia releases quotas on meat import

Russia's Economic Development Ministry promulgated via its website the size and procedures for distributing the Q1 2007 quotas on meat import to Russia.

The ministry plans to import about 74 percent of beef from Europe despite the fact that the latter itself has turned into a beef importer.

The ministry released a list of importers and the calculation for 25 percent of the frozen meat quotas for 2007.

The ministry expects to import 86,900 tonnes from the EU, 4,500 tonnes from the US and not more than 17,800 tonnes from other states (Brazil, Paraguay, Peru, Argentina and some).

Russia has been imposing quotas on meat and poultry imports since 2003. The US gets the highest quota on poultry (74 percent) while the EU has to do with 18 percent and the rest of the world gets not more than 6 percent in its share.

At the meat import, however, EU gets the highest quota, with 78 percent going towards beef and 50 percent towards pork.

Incidentally, the US and the EU insisted on such a quota distribution system.

The latest list compiled by the Economic Development Ministry has been criticised by the importers who feel it would result in shortage of cheap beef.

The Latin American states, Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and others have been the key meat suppliers to Russia for three years. But the ministry does not seem to be taking market opportunities into account, reserving 78 percent of beef quota for Europe, said Ivan Kapitonov, chief of the sales department at Rubezh Group.