Russia restricts South American meat imports

07-Jun-2015 - Last updated on 08-Jun-2015 at 10:35 GMT

Russia has limited imports from Brazil and Paraguay

Russian veterinary body Rosselkhoznadzor has recently introduced restrictions on beef imports from several Brazilian companies and has refused entry of a large shipment of meat from Paraguay.

Russia limited imports of beef from three Brazilian companies, including JBS SA, Marfrig Global Foods SA and Frigol SA, on 2 June. “The reason for the restriction of supply was the fact that the products of these companies have been found to contain excessive level of antibiotics, E.coli and listeria,” said the press service of Rosselkhoznadzor.

From June 9, similar restrictions have been imposed on 10 different Brazil meat plants, while enhanced laboratory controls have been implemented on seven others. “This decision has been made after the inspection of these enterprises by Russian veterinarians in March 2015. In addition, we decided to retain the ban on supplies from the two other Brazil meat businesses,” added the press-service.

Brazil is the largest supplier of beef to the former Soviet Union, but the country faced mixed results in the first quarter of 2015 after the collapse of the Russian currency in December 2014.

According to data from the Eurasia Economic Commission (EEC), supplies of Brazilian beef to Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan in 2014 increased by 0.9% to 307,100 tonnes (t) with a total value US$1.3bn. However, in the first quarter these countries exported 22,600t with a value US$81.2 million, which is 51.7% less than during the same period in 2014.

In 2014 Brazilian pork exports to these countries increased 44.2% to 187,800t with a value US$802.3m while poultry exports more than doubled to 121,700t (US$275.4m). In the first quarter of 2015, exports of poultry meat to EEC countries increased 77.7% to 17,700t (US$29.5m), pork exports declined 21.3% to 25,600t (US$85.9m).

“It is clear that the statistics for exports of meat from Brazil to Russia earlier this year are not as strong as they were last year,” commented Russian agricultural analyst Eugen Gerden. “Russia is making positive steps towards meat self-sufficiency, and therefore it definitely will not increase the number of meat suppliers of meat from abroad. Most likely is that in the current situation, Rosselkhoznadzor will hardly respond to all violations of exporters. As a result, imported channels will be gradually reduced, which will favourably contribute to the implementation of the programme of import substitution on the domestic Russian market.”

In early June Russia returned a large shipment of 56t of meat from Paraguay because of a mismatch of products to the veterinary documents. Experts pointed out that the supply of meat from Paraguay may also be limited. In 2014, Paraguay exported 130,000t of beef to Paraguay, worth US$550m.

However, as a result of the devaluation of the ruble, the value of one tonne of Paraguayan beef decreased from US$4,800 to US$3,300.