Customs Union faces new meat trade dispute
Isaeva accused Russian and Belarusian companies of dumping products of extremely poor quality on the Kazakhstan market.
“They injected poultry carcases with high quantities of water. Once we found a poultry leg that had been injected 80 times; it was produced by the Russian company ‘Resource’. Such actions allow them [Russian and Belarusian poultry producers] to continue to reduce the price and dump compared to domestic [Kazakh] producers,” she said.
She added that Kazakh vets were finding imported poultry was frequently infected with dangerous levels of E.coli.
“We are also very concerned that in the poultry imported from Russia, the amount of coliform bacteria and the amount of mesophilic bacteria often exceeds all allowable levels. This means that these poultry products are not safe for humans. Their consumption may lead to poisoning,” she explained.
According to information from Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Agriculture, leading firms in the Russian poultry market Altai Broiler and Prioskoly are on the list of suppliers that have sent poor-quality poultry to Kazakhstan.
The Ministry of Agriculture press service said that, as a result of dumping by other countries in the European Union, sales of domestic poultry have fallen by 30%. Local vets warned that if the supply of low-quality poultry is not stopped soon, Kazakhstan will have to implement restrictions on poultry imports and, in particular, can completely ban poultry supplies from Russia.
“We’ve sent letters with warnings to the Russian and Belarusian companies that were found violating the veterinary rules on discrepancy marking, moisture content or microbiological parameters. If any of these violations are found again, we will take all the necessary steps to protect ourselves from such products,” Isayeva concluded.
