March 28, 2016

Russia rules out resumption of all-EU pork imports

Russia might allow the entry of pigmeat imports from the EU on a country-by-country basis.

Yevgeny Nepoklonov, the deputy head of Rosselkhoznadzor, Russia's veterinary and phytosanitary surveillance body, was reported as telling the EU's ambassador to Russia, Vygaudas Ušackas, that a resumption of pigmeat imports was possible if they were accompanied by a health certificate issued by the national veterinary service of the exporting country. The certificate, Nepoklonov added, should indicate that the country had been free from African swine fever (ASF) for the past three years.

Ušackas, however, maintained that any resumption of pigmeat imports must be on an all-EU basis.

Russia first imposed a ban on pork and pork products from member states Lithuania and Poland in Junuary 2014 following detection of ASF in four wild boars on the two countries' borders with Belarus.

The ban became EU-wide and covered other food imports in August of the same year as retaliation for EU trade sanctions following Russia's support of the rebels in Ukraine.