Dangerous products

Rosselkhoznadzor has partially banned the import of Brazilian meat and is preparing to allow the supply of vegetables and fruits from Turkey

Rosselkhoznadzor has temporarily suspended the import of meat products from the territory of two Brazilian states - Pernambuco and Goiás. As service press secretary Alexey Alekseenko told Vremya Novostey yesterday, “such measures were introduced in connection with the registration of vesicular stomatitis in animals in these states.” According to him, the first reports of animal outbreaks in two Brazilian states appeared on June 11. At the same time, Rosselkhoznadzor has no questions for the Brazilian side regarding the quality of the supplied products - the temporary embargo is simply reinsurance against the possibility of importing meat from infected animals, and as soon as the virus is defeated, it will be lifted. Meanwhile, today Agriculture Minister Alexei Gordeev is due to hold a meeting with his Turkish counterpart Mehmet Mehdi Eker, at which he will discuss the situation with the ban on the import of vegetables and fruits into Russia.

According to experts, Brazil is one of the largest exporters of meat products to Russia. In particular, Brazilian beef occupies the main place in the structure of imports of this meat. According to the Institute of Agricultural Marketing, in 2007, 437.7 thousand tons of beef were imported from Brazil to Russia, which is 62% of the total import volume of this meat. In total, $2 billion worth of meat products were imported from Brazil last year, says Mr. Alekseenko. In April of this year, imports of Brazilian beef amounted to 33.8 thousand tons, or 49% of the total volume of beef supplies to Russia.

There are only about 70 Brazilian enterprises certified by Rosselkhoznadzor that have the right to supply products to Russia. In the state of Goiás there are 11 of them, and in the state of Pernambuco there are none at all, but they also decided to formally suspend the import of meat from its territory for preventive purposes. Thus, the ban does not apply to all supplies of Brazilian meat. The service cannot yet say how long the forced embargo will last. “We will wait until the Brazilian authorities cope with the disease, when no more cases of infection are recorded,” Mr. Alekseenko explained.

While domestic consumers are unlikely to feel the lack of meat products from two Brazilian states, the ban on the supply of fruits and vegetables from Turkey at the height of summer, introduced by Rosselkhoznadzor in early June, risked having a very serious impact on the shelves of markets and stores. After all, according to the marketing company Ipsos, their share in Russian imports of fruit and berry products ranges from 10 to 30%, depending on the type of product. As is known, due to “systematic violations by the Turkish side of international and Russian requirements for the supply of products,” the service decided to temporarily suspend the import of tomatoes, eggplants, potatoes, grapes and lemons from this country into our country. The fact is that in 86 deliveries of vegetables with a total weight of just under 4 thousand tons produced since the beginning of the year, an unacceptable excess of pesticides, nitrites and nitrates was revealed, and quarantine pests for our country were also found. As Rosselkhoznadzor told Vremya Novostey, the service repeatedly appealed to the Turkish side with demands to tighten control over exported vegetables and fruits, but it continued to issue phytosanitary certificates necessary for importing products to other countries.

Last week, Turkish media disseminated information that temporary restrictions on the supply of plant products between countries have been lifted, and as of July 1, vegetables and fruits will again begin to arrive in Russia. However, as Rosselkhoznadzor explained to Vremya Novostei, this information turned out to be inaccurate. According to Mr. Alekseenko, the service has prepared a memorandum, within the framework of which a list of safe suppliers and laboratories where vegetables and fruits are tested will be compiled. In our country, they are awaiting another check, and “if an unacceptable content of harmful substances is detected, and the suppliers present a positive conclusion from the laboratory, then they will be removed from this list.” Today this memorandum should be discussed by Messrs. Gordeev and Eker.

Kirill MELNIKOV