Brussels, 12/04/2001 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday, the Russian government announced that it would be introducing poultry import quotas for the European Union. The Russian Agriculture Minister said that the country's gamut of import rights were no longer sufficient for preventing the mass import of cheap products and that despite the implementation in 1999 of a programme to revitalise the Russian poultry industry, local producers were no longer able to remain competitive. Russian poultry production is handicapped by several issues which prevent it from expanding such as a weak genetic stock, lack of therapeutic treatments (vaccinations), a lack of feedstuffs and little investment capacity.
The new quotas would apply to poultry products imported from the European Union, but EU trade with Russia has already been hit by Russia's economic crisis. Some 37% of the EU's poultry exports go to eastern Europe, including Russia, but it is proving difficult to compete against the United States and Brazil since prices have been on a steady downward spiral since 1997. In the EU, only Denmark's poultry industry is showing signs of dynamism in this region, being able to compete with the US price cuts. Imports from the US are doing well on the Russian market, totalling 600,000 tonnes in the first 11 months of 2000, compared with only 308,000 tonnes in 1999 at an average price of USD 500/tonne.
The announcement comes at a time when Russia has decided to relax its embargo (announced on 26 March 2001 as a result of foot and mouth fever) of imports of fish, poultry (and derived products) and dairy and milk products. The relaxation of these measures does not only affect the European Union, but also Norway, Iceland, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania and the Baltic States. The partial lifting of the ban bodes well for the full lifting of the ban on imports from the EU. Commissioner Franz Fischler said that the EU hoped to start exporting to Russia again in the very near future. The EU exported 300,000 tonnes of beef to Russia in 2000 (slightly over 40% of the total 700,000 tonnes of beef exports to third countries) and 400,000 tonnes of pork (just under 30% of the 1.4 million tonnes of total pork exports to third countries).