Russia bans Moldovan meat imports

The ban, which came into force on Monday 18 April, covers beef, pork, mutton and poultry as well all Moldovan products derived from meat. It will last indefinitely.

Serghey Dantvert, head of RosSelkhozNadzor, the Russian Federal Veterinary and Phyto-Sanitary Monitoring Service, said Moldovan manufacturers often tried to export more meat than they produced.

He said this had made Russian authorities suspicious that Moldova was re-exporting meat from third countries and this meant there could be no quality assurance on meat from Moldova until the situation became clearer.

Russian authorities will now investigate whether meat imported to Moldova is being re-packaged and sold on as a local brand, a practice that could increase a producer's income by 10 to 20 per cent compared to selling bona fide domestic products, according to specialists.

Some analysts said they thought the Russian government has known for some time about low sanitary quality of Moldovan meat. They said Russia had been importing meat from Moldova for a long time and had ignored the issue of low quality in products from many former Soviet states.

Authorities in Belarus and the Ukraine have already admitted allowing meat found to contain false documents to pass through their country. Now they can only export meat to Russia subject to strict document controls by the Russian Veterinary Department.

However, Mikhail Tomsha, head of the veterinary and sanitary department of the Moldova State Veterinary Inspection, said there were no grounds for Russia to charge Moldova with re-exporting meat.

"We supply Russia with meat and by-products that are manufactured only at local meat processing factories,"​ he said, adding that Moldovan authorities provided their Russian colleagues with a list of all companies exporting their products to Russia as well as Russian companies that have import contracts with Moldovan manufacturers.

Tomsha said Moldovan meat, including beef, pork, mutton and chicken as well as meat by-products, is supplied strictly in the volumes stipulated by contracts, and these volumes do not exceed the volume of meat manufactured in the country.

He said that in 2004, Moldova exported 5078 tons of meat and by-products to Russia, and had already sold another 646 tons in the first third of 2005.