Fewer Customs Points for Meat Imports
The Federal Customs Services is reducing the number of customs clearance points for imported meat. The six Baltic customs points in St. Petersburg and key point in the Russian Far East will be closed. It is standard procedure to renew the list of clearance points for meat periodically, but the cuts in it were unexpected. They take effect on February 15. There are no large seaports, which account for 10 percent of meat imports in monetary terms, on the new list.
There have been quotas on meat imports in Russia since 2003. This year, the quota on foul is 1171.2 tons, on beef 440,000 tons and on pork 484,800 tons, for a total value of around $3 billion.
A customs service spokesman explained that customs clearance points that lacked facilities for temporary meat storage, i.e., freezers, were excluded from the list. In the Far Eastern, 15-18 percent of customs payments are on meat, however, and the Urals customs department, where there will be no customs clearing points for meat, has contacted importers with proposals to build storage facilities. It will take about nine months to build such facilities.
It is estimated that three or four storage facilities with capacities of 400 tons each would be needed in the Far East. The only port that remains on the list for meat clearance in that regions is Petropavlovsk-Kamchatka, where foreign vessels do not dock. Analysts say that there will be a severe meat shortage in Maritime Territory, since 90 percent of the meat recessed there is imported. The four customs points in St. Petersburg that will still clear meat are expected to be unable to handle the flow of meat imports there, leading to shortages in Central Russia as well.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Dec. 05, 2007
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