May 13, 2008

Canada hopeful Russia will resume pork imports

Canadian and Russian officials will meet this week in an attempt to restore the shipments of Canadian pork to Russia, an official with the Canadian Pork Council said.

"Canadian pork shipments to Russia were halted on March 31, 2008, when the agreement template for the issuance of import licenses terminated between the two countries," Martin Rice, an executive director with the Canadian Pork Council said.

Rice said the Carole Swan, President of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, (CFIA), will be going to Moscow this week to meet Russian officials.

Ms. Swan is very optimistic that a new agreement template will be put into place that will allow Canadian shipments of pork to resume to Russia promptly, Rice said.

The appointment of new Russian officials has meant delays as they wanted to review the process, even though a new agreement template has been in place for a number of months, Rice said.

Canadian pork shipments to Russia during the first two months of calendar 2008 totalled 17,000 tonnes, this is up 2,000 tonnes from the same period in 2007.

Canada shipped 90,000 tonnes of pork to Russia in 2007.

The Canadian pork shipments consisted of a variety of cuts, but has been mostly made up of organ meats.