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Authorities Stop Re-Distributing Meat Quotas among Countries
The Russian Economic Development and Trade Ministry is going to ban using licenses for meat imports from one country for another, if it runs against current meat quotas. Importers will have to import beef and pork from the European Union instead of the cheaper South America, as a result. Experts predict that red meat may be soon in shortage and the prices may go up 25 percent.
All large meat importers have confirmed that the economic development ministry has recently declined to re-distribute meat import quotas among countries. Sergey Yushin, head of the National Meat Association, says the problem has affected poultry, beef, pork and mutton.
A governmental regulation fixes the country distribution of import license within state-determined quotas on poultry, beef and pork. The blueprint also suggest that a company may apply for using the license on a product from one country for the product from another, if the products of the latter were totally or partially banned due to veterinary reasons. Officials have so far satisfied most applications. According to customs statistics, the amount of beef and poultry imports from Argentina and Brazil exceeded the quotas for these countries three or four times in 2005.
The Economic Development and Trade Minister reiterates that it does not want to “violate the accords between Russia, the U.S. and the EU signed for the accession of our country to the WTO.” Market participants, however, attribute the tough stance on meat issues to recent criminal cases against officials who used to supervise the distribution of the quotas.
Experts believe that the denial to re-distribute quotas among countries will cause the shortage of red meat and its market prices will rise. Red meat prices may grow 20-25 percent, under the most pessimistic estimates, as European meat is about $1 or $2 more expensive than the Argentinean or Brazilian. The move will also take its toll on the meat procession. Small and medium-sized meat-packing plants, the main consumers of imported beef and pork, will find themselves on the verge of bankruptcy.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of May 25, 2006
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