Head of the Russian Federal Customs Andrey Belyaninov
Photo: Êèðèëë Òóëèí
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Customs Leaves Meat Import as Is
The Federal Customs Services has decided against changes in meat import points due to take effect April 15, thus leaving the Baltic and Vladivostok ports open to those imports. Closing the Baltic ports would have forced meat prices up 5-7 percent and threatened the businesses of the N-Trans and National Container Cos. The customs posts in question handle about 80 percent of Russia's meat imports. Only three of the six Baltic posts (Lesnoi Port, Turukhtanny and Gavan) will handle meat imports after April 15, however. Last year, 1.4 million tons of meat and 1.28 million tons of fowl were imported into Russia.
The customs service announced in October of last year that the number of customs points for met imports would be reduced, and released a revised list of those points last month, threatening panic on the market. Customs checkpoints were excluded from the new list for the absence of temporary storage facilities. At the end of last month, a meeting was held in St. Petersburg between representatives of the meat industry and Federal Customs Service official Sergey Alexeev, at which the businessmen pointed out the consequences of the changes they would be forced to make by the new procedures, including loss of income for the customs service.
Three Baltic customs posts will be deprived of the authority to process meat imports. They are the Lomonosov, Kronshadt and Central posts. Only the first two actually handle meat imports. Anonymous sources in the meat industry call the customs service's proposed requirement that all checkpoints handling meat have storage facilities “absurd.” Customs brokers at the Baltic checkpoints have the necessary refrigeration capacity, they say. In Vladivostok, three storage facilities will be authorized to handle meat.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Mar. 17, 2008
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