Russian Agriculture Minister Alexey Gordeev says Russia will take time and examine the results of European tests of Polish meat to come up with questions to ask the European Commission.
Photo: Michail Galustov
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Talks to Resume Polish Meat Exports to Russia Break Off
Russian and Polish agriculture officials failed to reach agreement on Friday to resume Polish meat exports to Russia. The Russian agriculture minister pledged that the talks would be continued. Market participants, however, do not hold much hope for an early result.
Russia’s Agriculture Minister Alexey Gordeev said on Friday before meeting his Polish counterpart Andrzej Lepper that “the issue on the resumption of the exports from the EU to Russia is settled”.
The talks went behind closed doors. Minister Gordeev reported on Saturday that the Polish meat talks would be continued with the mediation of the European Commission. EU Commissioner Markos Kyprianou decided to turn the talks to the level of the EU Commission and Russia, the Russian minister reported in Berlin on Saturday. He also said that the EU Commission had handed Russian agriculture authorities the results of tests that European experts held at Polish farms. “We are going to take time and examine these documents to come up with questions we could send to the European Commission,” Alexey Gordeev said.
Russia put a ban on the export of meat from Poland in November 2005 for sanitary reasons. Poland imported meat worth $230 million every year before 2005, Russian experts estimated.
Industry experts believe that the talks to lift the ban may drag on for a long time because the issue is extremely politicized. The Russian market, however, will only win if Polish meat is back. The director of the Russian National Meat Association underscores that Poland is a major producer of cheap pork. In the meantime, pork prices went up 40 percent in Russia last year.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Jan. 22, 2007
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