January 16, 2009
Russia bans more countries from exporting meat
The Russian Department of Agriculture Rosselkhoznadzor, has placed a ban on one meat plant from Australia and two from Brazil on Tuesday (Jan 13).
There was no significant reason given but only that the meat plants did not meet requirements of the Russian government on sanitation and standards.
Russia is applying to export venison to the EU from two of their abattoirs but there is no way that the plants in Russia would be fit to export to the EU.
Last year Russia imposed bans on 167 meat plants from 8 different counties each case without a specific reason.
Imports in Russia in 2008, grew by 17.6 percent to 1,461 million tonnes with a value of US$4.41 billion, compared with 1,242 million tonnes in 2007.
Brazil exported 40 percent of its cow beef to Russia in 2008, but according to Brazilian beef exporters, there is a difficulty in getting money from the Russian presently.
