Pork restrictions may damage EU-Russia relations

06-10-2009 | Home | News

The increase in artificial restrictions on imports of pork to Russia might result in significant deterioration of EU-Russia relations in meat trade and to become a cause of record losses of the leading European pork producers such as Danish Crown and German Toennies Fleisch, Russian analysts believe.

By Evegen Vorotnikov
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Currently the Russian government is continuing to implement its policy of expensive meat import restrictions, hoping to increase the level of the domestic production as soon as possible.
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However such actions are not positively responded by some European meat producers, traditionally considering Russia as one of the largest pork sale market in the world. Until recently, the share of the European Union pork accounted for 45% of the total pork imports to Russia, but due to new restrictions their share could significantly decrease.

According to analysts the imposing pork import restrictions by the Russian government can intensively affect the two largest European meat and pork producers Danish Crown and Toennies Fleisch.
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Today, the share of both companies account for about 20% of the total European pork exports to Russia, or 6% of the Russian pork imports (with the current consumption in Russia – about 2 million tonnes of pork per year), but it is clear that the current policies pursued by the Russian authorities in the meat trade can force them to seek alternative markets for their pork sale in the very near future.