Russia lifts ban on breeding pigs from Lithuania
The first deliveries will be sent on Wednesday, 4 September. “The first step has been taken – now we can export breeding pigs,” said Minister of Agriculture Virgilijus Jukna.
Lithuania hopes Russia will also cancel the ban on exports of live pigs, also introduced in June 2011, when outbreaks of classical swine fever were detected in the Kaunas district.
“This good news is the result of regular and constructive business dialogue with our Russian colleagues,” said the director of Lithuania’s Veterinary Service Jonas Milius. He also noted that, in May this year, Russian inspectors audited livestock facilities in Lithuania and gave a positive assessment of the situation on classical swine fever.
However, he added that there were still a lot of issues to be resolved. In particular, in mid-July Russia stopped imports of chilled beef and pork from Lithuania, because during the inspection, Russian vets found Latvian and Polish meat in the Lithuanian products, which had been used illegally.
Single union of meat producers
Milius also pointed out that to successfully develop meat imports and to deal with foreign countries’ restrictions, Lithuania would have to establish a single Union of Meat Producers. He added that he did not believe the Customs Union implemented meat import restrictions on Baltic States due to political reasons.
“This is not due to a political issue, but to our own mistakes. For example, the Russian vets officially told us they were not going to negotiate with each particular company. They are willing to communicate only with the associations representing the interests of all exporters. However, our producers are not in a hurry to join forces in a strong organisation,” he said.
“Each segment [of the meat industry] has more than 10 non-governmental organisations representing them. Even individual businesses may establish their own organisations and the opinions of such associations often contradict each other. We are representing Lithuanian business and simply do not know what opinion we should rely on.”
