Russia includes Canadian chilled beef in meat ban

Thursday, January 24, 2013

by SUSAN MANN

Russia continues to press Canada and the United States to provide assurances their chilled beef and pork shipments are ractopamine free and it’s prepared to temporarily halt imports from the two countries starting Feb. 4.

But Mark Klassen, Canadian Cattlemen’s Association technical services director, says Canadian beef plants have already significantly cut back shipments because of Russia’s new rule on ractopamine, announced in December. “In some senses, this ban on trade, for practical purposes, has almost already occurred because we can’t live with this requirement.”

In a Jan. 22 press release posted on its website, Rosselkhoznador, the Russian federal veterinary and phytosanitary surveillance service, has again requested Canada and the United States provide guarantees that chilled pork and beef exports to Russia don’t contain ractopamine. In addition, Russia wants guarantees that animals used for meat exported to its country aren’t fed ractopamine, which is used to promote leanness in animals raised for meat.

Russia says despite numerous requests, ractopamine-containing products are still being delivered from both Canada and the United States and “that is not compliant with the requirements of Russia and the Customs Union.”

The Russian agency says it’s particularly concerned about chilled meat imports. “The situation is deteriorated by the fact that chilled pork and beef come to market before the laboratory test results for ractopamine presence are obtained,” Rosselkhoznador’s release says.

Earlier this month, Rosselkhoznador announced two Canadian pork plants faced temporary restrictions on future shipments effective Jan. 23, while other plants in Canada, the United States and Brazil were placed under enhanced surveillance because ractopamine was detected in frozen pork products. One of the plants facing temporary restrictions on its shipments is Quality Meat Packers Limited of Toronto. It was working with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency to avert the Russian suspension.

Quality vice president Jim Gracie couldn’t be reached for comment.

Martin Charron, Canada Pork International vice president for market and trade development, says the new Russian requirement for ractopamine-free meat was effective Dec. 7, 2012. “As of Dec. 7, Canadian shipments of pork going to Russia are going meeting the Russian requirements.”

For the first 10 months of 2012, Canada exported 180,000 tonnes of frozen pork to Russia, which is Canada’s third largest market for frozen pork after the United States and Japan.

Charron says Canada doesn’t have permission to export chilled pork to Russia but “we’ve been working on that for years.”

As for the Dec. 7 requirement, Canada is meeting Russia’s new rule by sending shipments accompanied by a certificate from a CFIA veterinarian stating the product has been tested. Another way is a very small number of Canadian plants are approved to export to the European Union, and provided the meat comes from pigs that haven’t been fed ractopamine, the CFIA will certify it as okay to export to Russia, he says.

Canada Pork International and the Canadian Meat Council are working to “develop a system under which we would be able to provide Russia with assurances that the meat comes from animals not fed ractopamine. But that’s still under development,” he says.

Klassen says Canada exported 6,254 tonnes of beef worth $15.5 million to Russia from January to November 2012. He didn’t have an exact number of how much of that was chilled product, but he says it’s a very small number.

The amount of Canadian beef going to Russia is a much smaller volume than shipments to Canada’s largest export market, the United States. But “we recognize the opportunity Russia could present in the future,” he says, noting the Canadian beef industry doesn’t want to be excluded from this market. Russia is one of the world’s largest importers of beef and the Russians’ rising standard of living “bodes well for future demand for our high quality beef.”

The cattlemen association’s position on ractopamine is that it’s a safe product. It’s approved for use in about 40 countries, including Canada, the U.S., Brazil and Australia.  The Canadian government has done a scientific review of it “and it’s on that basis cattle producers are using ractopamine. It provides a benefit to the industry and ultimately to the consumer because it makes production more efficient,” he says.

In addition, the international food safety and quality standards setting body, the Codex Alimentarius Commission, examined ractopamine and established maximum residue limits. The World Trade Organization recognizes the Codex Alimentarius. “By joining the WTO, Russia has also indicated that they believe in that international process and we believe they have to respect that now, just as we do,” he says.

Klassen says all countries involved with global agricultural product trade are best served when science-based standards are observed and countries can’t arbitrarily install technical trade barriers.

Countries can abide by global scientific standards or if they don’t they can offer compensation to their trading partners, but Klassen says “I hope that the Russians wouldn’t let it go to that point. Clearly they’re not abiding by the rules of the WTO.”

The CFIA wasn’t able to provide information in time for this posting. BF