Better certificates boost pork access to Russia

(Resource News International) — Enhanced security features on Canadian meat certificates played an important role in recently improving Canada’s access to Russian pork markets, federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz said Tuesday.

Ritz was in Russia to participate in a meeting of the Russia-Canada agriculture working group of the Intergovernmental Economic Commission.
In response to a question posed during a media teleconference, Ritz said the illegal copying of Canadian meat certificates for the Russian black market had been the “genesis” for a temporary stoppage of Canadian pork shipments into Russia.

When the situation climaxed over the winter, Canadian and Russian officials met to discuss the creation of an “impenetrable” meat certificate using enhanced security features.

Russian officials “asked us to come up with a foolproof system. We have done that and put it into place. For pork exports it is working extremely well and we’re in the process right now of paralleling that system into other agricultural areas as well,” Ritz said.

Ritz also spoke during the media conference about his optimism regarding future opportunities in Russia for Canadian live cattle exports.

Last year, $14 million worth, or roughly 5,000 head, of live beef and dairy cattle were shipped to Russia from Canada. Ritz said there is tremendous opportunity for growth in that area given Russian demand for “top quality Canadian beef and dairy animals” and said the problem will sooner be one of inadequate Canadian supply than of Russian demand.

Ritz will be in Japan next, meeting with government officials to discuss the possibility of market access for bone-in cuts of beef from animals under 30 months of age as well as market access for beef from animals over 30 months of age.

By pointing to the high level of integration in the North American beef industry, Ritz said, he hopes to convince Japanese officials that Canadian beef products should be allowed the same access as U.S. beef products.

The announcement on June 24 of Canada’s 13th case of BSE, found in B.C., is not expected to hamper discussions in Japan on the issue of market access for Canadian beef, he said.

Ritz emphasized Canada will retain its controlled status as the country remains well under the allowable annual amount of BSE occurrences.

“We are allowed a dozen cases in a calendar year and we are just past a dozen over six calendar years so our status continues to be ‘controlled,’ the same status as the U.S.,” he said.