Russia to resume beef and pork imports from 12 units in Brazil

Russia will resume importing beef and pork from 12 Brazilian units this week, said the country’s health security regulator this Tuesday (23).

Most of the restrictions on Brazilian beef and pork producers by Russia have been in place since 2017, due to allegations of the use of the additive ractopamine in the feed of livestock, which Brazilian groups in the meat industry have denied.

Last month, Russia had already allowed the importation of beef from three major Brazilian exporters.

The new release, starting on November 25, involves nine units of pork and three of beef.

The Russian department Rosselkhoznadzor did not reveal the names of the slaughterhouses.

“Rosselkhoznadzor continues to work on expanding the list of Brazilian producers certified to supply beef to Russia,” he stated.

The release comes after the Brazilian Agriculture Minister, Tereza Cristina, met in Moscow last week with the head of the Russian Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance, Sergey Dankvert, who also guaranteed an inspection visit to Brazil , in the first quarter of 2022, aiming at enabling new Brazilian meatpacking plants for export.

Russia, which in the past was one of Brazil’s biggest markets, plans to establish a duty-free import quota of up to 200,000 tonnes of beef in 2022 to increase domestic supply, as part of the measures the government expects to help stabilize domestic inflation, which is at a maximum of five years.

For Brazil, the world’s biggest beef exporter, Russia is a promising market, as its exports to China were temporarily suspended in September after two unusual cases of mad cow disease were reported in the South American country.

At the same time, China’s customs authorities said on Tuesday that they would accept import orders for Brazilian beef that had received a health certificate before September 4th.

Brazil suspended beef exports to China on Sept. 4, but beef that was already in ports continued to be exported, with most not making it through customs on arrival in China.

The cases were considered “atypical” because they were of a spontaneous type rather than by herd transmission.

According to the International Organization for Animal Health (OIE), “atypical” cases pose no risk to human and animal health, and are generally detected in older cattle.