March 7, 2016

Russia eyes China pork market, readies first export this year

Russia is preparing to export meat, particularly frozen pork, to China starting this year.

Russian Agriculture Minister Alexander Tkachev said, "We will gradually, step by step, develop the Chinese meat market; the start will be this year".

He added that a working group on exports to that Asian country was set up after the visit of Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev to China in December 2015.

The Russian-Chinese Commission would soon inspect Russian export enterprises to conduct their certification, Tkachev said.

The state-owned news agency Tass reported that Rusagro, one of Russia's biggest agri-food companies, is building a pig-breeding complex in Russia's Far East region for the supply of chilled pork to China.

Other big companies including Cherkizovo have also declared their intention to supply meat to China, seeing that market as a very promising one for the supplies of frozen pork, Tass said.

Russia was reported earlier this year to be capable of becoming a pork exporter as production has swelled 26% in the last four years and pork imports have decreased by over 80% from their peak in 2012, based on US Department of Agriculture data.-Rick Alberto