February 3, 2014
Russia bans European pork exports on ASF outbreak in Lithuania
Russia, one of the most important importers of European pork, closed its borders to pork from the EU in response to the recent outbreaks of African Swine Fever in Lithuania.
On Thursday, January 30th, Sergey Dankvert from the Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance (Rosselkhoznadzor) informed Bernard van Goethem, Director of Department of DG Health and Consumers of the European Commission of the need to stop certification of exported products intended for Russia by the EU Veterinary Service due to EU's failure to fully comply with the requirements of the bilateral Memorandum signed in 2006 as well as with the provisions of such certification.
Russia has been known to immediately ban animal products from the EU when an outbreak occurs in one of the member states. Meanwhile, Poland and Belarus agreed to submit detailed information on measures for monitoring ASF to the Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance (Rosselkhoznadzor).
As Russia relies on EU member states to supply more than 60% of its pork import requirements and almost all of its pig offal, wholesale meat prices in Russia have already started to rise following the ban.
For the first 11 months of 2013, Russia imported more than 701,000 tonnes of pork from the 28 EU member states, accounting for almost a quarter of total European pork exports. During this same period, Russia imported more pork than China, which imported nearly 618,000 tonnes.
