Moscow has expanded its existing import restrictions to cover beef offal and beef fats. The Commission said EU exports overall of beef offal to Russia this January-August (2014) were worth €47 million or 31,029 tonnes (t), and for beef fats, €9.9m (9,629t). Irish exports to Russia accounted or a greater proportion of both these products than sales from any other EU member state – 16.25% for beef offal and 26.66% for beef fats. If the ban is maintained, then Irish exporters would stand to lose €7.63m in beef offal sales and €2.63m-worth of beef fat sales during the same period next year (2015).
Other countries accounting for major proportions of exports to Russia of these products include Austria (16.62% in total); Lithuania (15.16%); Germany (11.68%); and France (9.61%). Other countries affected by the new ban include Poland, Italy, Denmark, the Netherlands, Finland, Sweden, Belgium, Hungary, Spain, Croatia, Latvia and Estonia.
Russia is an especially important market for EU producers of both products. For EU bovine offal, in January-August this year, Russia accounted for 56.8% of overseas sales by value. And for beef fats, Russian purchases accounted for 76.7% of overseas EU sales.
A note from the Commission’s agriculture directorate general noted that while Russia officially announced a ban on imports of EU pigmeat fats, offal and by-products (meals), they “were already banned in February in [Moscow’s] measures relating to African Swine Fever.”
It added: “The beef/bovine products (fats, offal and by-products - meals) banned by Russia this week were not previously banned and make up slightly more than half of our traditional exports to Russia in the beef sector – but beef exports have always been much lower in value than pigmeat.” It said that the remaining products allowed into Russia were live cattle exports, “which seems to remain open”.