Brussels, 20/01/2015 (Agence Europe) - Following the previous day's announcement of an agreement in principle that should enable French exports of live pigs to be resumed to Russia (see EUROPE 11233), the European Commission confirmed on Tuesday 20 January that there was contact in Berlin (during the international green week) between European Commission departments and Russian veterinary departments - contact which seems “positive”.
According to Enrico Brivio, the spokesperson for Vytenis Andriukaitis, the European commissioner for health and food safety, the upshot of this contact should enable “the resumption, for some [agricultural] products,” of European exports to Russia. Work is under way on how these arrangements can be implemented.
In February 2014, Moscow declared an embargo on European pork - the official reason being the discovery of several cases of African swine fever in dead boar in Lithuania and Poland. The EU appealed to the WTO against this embargo. Since August 2014, Russia has also been applying an embargo on numerous other European foods (meat, fruit and vegetables, milk) amid the Ukrainian conflict.
Pig breeders in Europe, who are suffering a collapse in prices, have for months been calling on Phil Hogan, the European commissioner for agriculture, to take emergency measures, like private storage. (LC)