Source: The Western Producer
“Do ya think drug tainted Horse Meat might be included?”
MOSCOW, Russia (Reuters) — Russia plans to ban meat imports from most Canadian and Mexican suppliers starting Monday over concerns about the use of the feed additive ractopamine, a spokesperson for Russia’s veterinary and phytosanitary service said today.
“More than 50 percent of Canadian companies will be excluded from the list of suppliers,” Alexei Alekseenko said.
Russia also plans to ban about 80 percent of Mexican meat importers starting Monday, Interfax news agency reported earlier today, citing VPSS head Sergei Dankvert.
Canada was the largest pork supplier to Russia and accounted for 25 percent of its imports in 2012, said Sergei Yushin, head of Russia’s National Meat Association. About five percent of imported beef came to Russia from Mexico last year.
VPSS’s list of Canadian pork suppliers, published on its website at http://www.fsvps.ru, includes 88 companies, while the list for Mexico includes 20 names. A VPSS spokesperson could not comment on whether these lists had been updated.
Used as a growth stimulant to make meat leaner, ractopamine is banned in some countries over concerns that residues could remain in the meat and cause health problems, despite scientific evidence indicating that it is safe.
Since December, Russia has accepted meat only from Canadian livestock that were never fed ractopamine, which was already a tiny portion of the cattle herd, said John Masswohl, director of government and international relations at the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association.
Now Russia will accept meat only from ractopamine-free animals that are processed in Canadian plants that do not also handle livestock that have been raised on the stimulant, Masswohl said such plants do not exist in Canada.
“You’re taking a very bad existing situation, which limits (beef) trade to almost nothing, and making it nothing.”
Cargill Ltd. and JBS USA Holdings Inc. are the biggest beef packers in Canada.
Russia is a small, but fast-growing market for Canadian beef, worth $15 million in 2011. It is the third largest market for Canadian pork, worth $500 million a year, said Jacques Pomerleau, executive director of Canada Pork International.
Canada has a dozen pork processing plants that accept only ractopamine-free pigs, but there is no guarantee that Russia will include all of them on its revised supplier list, Pomerleau said.
Canada’s two biggest pork processors, Olymel and Maple Leaf Foods, have some facilities that should be eligible, Pomerleau said.
“We’re working very hard to meet Russia’s expectations,” said Olymel spokesperson Richard Vigneault.
“It’s a very important market for us.”
Spokespersons for Cargill and JBS could not be immediately reached, and Maple Leaf declined comment.
Spokespeople for Mexico’s economy and agriculture ministries said they were still reviewing the situation.
The Feb. 11 Russian ban on U.S. beef, pork and turkey because of the feed additive remains in place. Russia barred turkey imports from the United States despite a U.S. poultry trade group’s finding that U.S. turkey companies that ship to Russia do not use ractopamine.
More than $600 million worth of U.S. beef, pork and turkey is exported to Russia annually. The ban came amid trade tensions between the two countries.
The U.S. Senate last year approved a bill to expand bilateral trade. At the same time it sought to punish Russian human rights violators, leading to speculation that the ban on U.S. meat was in retaliation, which Russia denied.
“Basically, we’re just watching the situation and working with the industry and U.S. trade officials on a solution,” said Joe Schuele, communications director for the U.S. Meat Export Federation, a trade association for U.S. meat producers.
Russia will cover its meat demand by supplies from South America, mainly Brazil, Alekseenko said.
Russia imported 1.32 million tonnes of red meat, excluding offal, worth $5.12 billion from countries outside the Commonwealth of Independent States in 2012, official customs data showed.
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Categories: Horse News, Horse Slaughter
Straight from the Horse's Heart 
It sounds to me like the screws are beginning to be tightened. This scandal could be the best thing yet for our horses and other equines. Its amazing that US punishes Russia for human rights violations and they don’t think twice about the possible shipment of tainted horse meat. I am in total agreement about the human rights issue. It can’t be both ways..We will see what comes as the days progress.
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Is it not amazing that Russia cares more for the health of its citizens than Canada or the United States does?? Canada doesn’t seem to care about the health of the EU people that consume our contaminated horse meat just as long as someone makes MONEY.
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CAUTION eating horses may cause cancer. A tainted horse is a live horse. Seems we need to publicize the fact that we own tainted horses and must pass legislation that make the transport or selling such toxic potential food is illegal. Our American Mustangs then should also be protected as a source of a gene pool to restore uncontaminated future equines to be used if a genetic defect arises due to toxins. The government stores seeds for the very same reason.
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It is illegal to ship contaminated horsemeat. There are some 38 drugs not permitted at all in horses slaughtered for food. Then there are some 50 veterinary drugs permitted with a 6 month withdrawal period. This is from the Canadian food Inspection Agencies own rules. The paper work gets falsified and less than 1% of the horses slaughtered are tested. Maybe the consumers in Europe will start a class action law suit to ensure this never happens again and horse slaughter for human consumption comes to a halt.
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Someone needs to wave a BIG Red Flag at Russia and make sure to tell them, you don’t want any U.S. tainted horse meat either!!
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It might be helpful to look into the World Trade Organization’s Country of Origin Labeling Laws (COOL) as well. Canada and Mexico appealed to the WTO. The U.S. finally accepted a revised version. Secretary Vilsack supported COOL. http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2013/03/new-cool-rule-published-today-in-federal-register/#.UWAPNsrTGf0
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It’s important to note the WTO has 159 Member Nations and 25 Observers. I don’t know if all of them require COOL, but I’d think it would have been mentioned in articles if they weren’t in compliance. COOL requires labels state specifically where the livestock was born, raised and slaughtered. It would be hard (but probably not impossible) to disguise horse meat was from drug-laced U.S. horses. http://www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/whatis_e/tif_e/org6_e.htm
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“Western Producer”? Not exactly a disinterested publication/news source.
Check out the people interviewed, the players and some of the wording/vocabulary used: red meats for starters. USMEF categorized horsemeat as “beef varieties” in their export data.
And people are surprised horsemeat is in their Whoppers in the EU?
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Russia and the EU have already banned all U.S. beef, pork and turkey!!
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Wow. Go Russia! There isn’t much of a market left is there. I don’t know why the US is on the ethical downward spiral. Every country’s economy is bad right now – but it’s nice to see countries with some standards.
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Our hands aren’t clean regarding human rights violations. http://www.theadvocatesforhumanrights.org/Human_Rights_in_the_United_States.html
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Thank you Russia.
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This ban is on the drug ranctopamine which is used in cattle to help promote growth, not a hormone, but determined to be unsafe by 160 countries. US beef has been banned as well. But have not been able to get a response from the Russian Federation Food Safety Authority as to their stance on horse meat.
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Good, Wish they’d just stop eating the meat period!
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Go to the site share it so that more people become aware of these food issues and leave a comment!
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Well all you slippery pro-slaughter horsehaters…I knew you would end up screwing up all the beef, pork, chicken, etc markets…but good on you…if Canada has to continue to kill our heritage icons then I do not feel the least bit sorry….Our governments will have to learn the hard way and many ranchers and agricultural operations will go broke….maybe we can start over by doing things right with the welfare of the animals coming first .
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Agri-slaughter has no scruples. They classify horses as livestock. They pump animals full of growth hormones, antibiotics, and all types of drugs that become part of the food system. I am not even going to go into the cruel and unsanitary conditions the animals suffer through before, during, and after their violent deaths. Our cancer rates are soring because of the addiction to eating animals. We don’t need protein from this unholy source; there are far superior, much healthier alternatives. It is all about indulgence and profit.
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They are off on another drug. But yet there is no word on Bute…hmmm..there is no way that they do not know about that chemical..no way!
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Am I reading this right? We export beef to Russia and then import beef from Mexico???? Where is the logic in this? No wonder ranchers are so desperate for the land.
Well not for long because other countries are shutting the barn door before our animals even have a chance to get to their grocery stores. Wonder what ranchers will do when the market bottoms out????
Well we told them they should be siding with anti slaughter. Why they chose to compete with horsemeat is beyond me. They should’ve kept their eye on the prize.
Very happy to hear Russia won’t be taking any of our beef or horses.
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