MOSCOW: Russia on Wednesday banned the import of meat from 10 Brazilian processing plants starting on June 9, but the world’s top beef exporter said the ban will not impact trade.
Russian news agency Interfax said Rosselkhoznadzor, the Russian food safety regulator, announced the ban after its inspectors visited the Brazilian plants in March, Interfax said.
Russia, the second biggest importer of Brazilian beef in 2014 after Hong Kong and a major importer of the country’s pork, regularly bans imports from Brazilian meat packers.
Brazil’s beef export association Abiec said large meats processors had capacity to redirect animals to other plants that were not banned by Rosselkhoznadzor, which said imports would be temporarily banned due to phytosanitary risks at the facilities in question.
“There is no commercial problem of any kind… If I can’t export here, I’ll export from there. Our capacity is very large,” Abiec President Antonio Camardelli said.
Eight beef processing plants were banned, including three owned by Marfrig SA and two by JBS SA. Brazil can still export beef to Russia from 28 plants, according to Abiec.
JBS, a global company, said its exports to Russia would not be affected as it has 31 other plants that could ship there.
BRF SA, a major Brazilian pork and poultry processor, also had pork exports from one of its plants banned by Rosselkhoznadzor. The other pork plant blocked was owned by local firm Frigoestrela.
JBS shares initially fell in Sao Paulo but later rose 0.3 percent. Marfrig shares were flat and BRF rose 1.5 percent.
