Chinese pork may replace European on Russian market
Russia is considering importing pork from China to compensate for the loss of European pork which has been banned at the beginning of January because African Swine Fever (ASF) outbreaks, the Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance, Rosselkhoznadzor, said.
“We have been made an offer from the Chinese side, but we are still considering it. A delegation of Russian, Kazakh and Belarusian inspectors is going to visit China to find out if the quality of the meat is good enough and meets our criteria,” said Alexei Alekseenko, a spokesman for Rosselkhoznadzor. He added that it was still hard to say when the trip to China could take place, as the inspectors currently have a busy schedule.
Russia is a member of a customs union with Kazakhstan and Belarus, which means that the three neighbors have the same import and export regulations. Alekseenko added that China proposed nine enterprises to be included in the list of potential exporters.
But, he said, the quality of Chinese pork was still a key issue. China has been struggling to stamp out different animal diseases within its territory. The latest case occurred at the beginning of March, when more than 100 decaying bodies of pigs were found in a river in the eastern province of Jiangxi. No official explanation of the accident has been made public so far.
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