Russia turns back to the position of net importer of pork
Russia's pig meat imports In the year to May have reached 63,600 tonnes and the country turned back to the position of net importer of pork. After resuming pork imports from Brazil, Russia added 26,300 tonnes of pig meat imports in the first 5 months of 2019.
Russia banned Brazilian pig meat imports between December 2017 and October 2018. This followed the detection of traces of Ractopamine, a feed additive permitted in Brazil but banned in Russia, in some shipments. While Brazilian imports have more than doubled compared to last year, volumes remain around a quarter of the levels prior to the implementation of the ban.
A part of the market share for Brazilian pork has moved to Chile (15,200 tonnes) and Argentina (5,800 tonnes).
Meanwhile, Russian pork exports have reached 48,300 tonnes, up by 2% from the previous 12 months. "The product mix of exports has shifted a little this year. While offal still accounts for 40% of the exports in volume terms, this has actually fallen by 3 percentage points compared to the same period last year. Meanwhile, exports of pork have captured the market share and now account for 33% of Russian pig meat exports. The increase in pork exports is likely a reflection of the expanding production", believes Felicity Rusk, analyst, AHDB.
For this year, USDA is expecting an increase of 3% in Russian pork production, to 3.25 million tonnes cwe.
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