HAMBURG, Germany – German beef exporters fear a serious loss of business if Russia imposes its planned import restrictions on meat, says the head of Germany’s meat industry association.
About 20 percent of German beef exports to Russia could be cut, said Heike Harstick, chief executive of German meat industry association Verband der Fleischwirtschaft.
Italian and Dutch meat producer groups have also expressed concern about the quotas, should they take effect.
Russia’s government said it would impose import quotas on European Union poultry, pork and beef imports in apparent retaliation for the EU’s restricting of imports of cheap grain from eastern Europe, including Russia.
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Some analysts said the quotas are most likely to hurt the EU since Russia buys up to half the EU’s beef exports, a third of its poultry sales and a quarter of its pork.
“We still do not know the details of how or when the quotas will be imposed but they certainly could be a grave blow to German exporters,” said Harstick.
Russia plans an annual EU beef export quota of 420,000 tonnes also subjected to extra import duties.
“This is about 20 percent below annual EU beef exports to Russia, so presumably German exports would fall 20 percent too, depending on how quotas are distributed,” Harstick said.
Official Russian figures say the country imported about 169,000 tonnes of German beef in 2001.
“Between 80 and 90 percent of German beef exports outside the EU go to Russia and our exporters will feel these measures badly,” Harstick added.
“About 33 percent of our non-EU pork exports also go to Russia, but these have been falling in the last year because of competition from Brazil and the U.S., so I do not see a major impact on German pork sales.”
German meat exporters could in the short term turn to domestic fresh meat sales to compensate.
“If this happens, German beef prices could certainly fall,” she said.
German beef consumption has long recovered to the strong levels seen before it was cut by the country’s crisis with bovine spongiform encephalopathy in late 2000 and early 2001.
Food processors, fearful of another BSE affair, are still reluctant to use beef.
“I do not think German beef production will change much this year, but if Russia keeps the quotas in place, the loss of export business could lead to perceptibly reduced beef production in later years,” Harstick said.
