China Wants to Import Reindeer from Russia

At the 12th meeting of the Russian-Chinese working group on cooperation in veterinary supervision, phytosanitary control and food safety, Chinese officials announced their desire to import reindeer from Russia. This was reported by the publication "Agroexpert" with reference to an anonymous source familiar with the results of the negotiations.

The working group meeting was held from June 4 to 6 in the Chinese city of Sanya. The delegation from Russia was represented by Deputy Head of Rosselkhoznadzor Konstantin Savenkov. From the Chinese side, Deputy Head of the General Administration of Customs of the People's Republic of China Wang Lingjun participated in the negotiations.

“The parties agreed that the Russian side will send the Chinese colleagues the necessary information to conduct a risk assessment of the supply of these animals by the end of June this year, after which the Chinese side will promptly provide feedback on this issue,” an unnamed source told Agroexpert.

As Interfax writes , citing Rosstat data, by the end of 2022, there were just over one and a half million reindeer in Russia. A year earlier, there were almost one hundred thousand fewer.

The Agroexport center at the Ministry of Agriculture told the agency that since 2018, Russia has exported about a hundred deer. Almost half of them were sika deer intended for breeding.

In addition, since 2020, Russia has sent reindeer meat to Belarus and Kazakhstan several times. The Agroexpert publication and the Interfax agency did not specify the purpose for which China decided to start importing animals.

To get the main news faster, subscribe to our telegram and twitter .