Increased testing for antibiotics to start at 13 American plants

By TIM HEARDEN
Capital Press

Pork industry representatives say they are happy to see trade resumed with Russia, even though the deal means more testing requirements for American packers.

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced earlier this month that an agreement had been reached to reopen what was the fifth largest market for American pork last year.

Russia dropped a more than 2-month-old ban on meat from 13 American plants that it had initiated because of concerns over the presence of antibiotics. The 13 plants accounted for more than 90 percent of U.S. pork exports to that nation.

In return, the U.S. plants must submit to veterinary testing to certify that their pork exports meet Russian standards regarding microbiological and tetracycline residues, according to a USDA news release.

That's not a problem, said Dave Warner, spokesman for the National Pork Producers Council.

"Our pork meets U.S. standards, it meets international standards and it meets Russia's standards," Warner said. "They wanted this (certification) ... so we agreed."

Exported meat should be free of contaminants, he said, because there's a withdrawal period between the last dose of a health product given to pigs and the time they go to market.

Steve Meyer, an Iowa economist and consultant for the National Pork Board, said it was important that the U.S. work out a deal with Russia.

"Obviously, it's better to have access to the market than to not have access to it," said Meyer, president of Paragon Economics in Adel, Iowa.

The agreement announced March 5 reopens a market that's been lucrative for U.S. pork producers. The U.S. sent $476 million in pork products to Russia in 2008, up dramatically from the $7.6 million in pork sent there in 2003, Warner said.

The NPPC believes this year's shipments to Russia will exceed the 50,000 metric-ton quota that triggers a higher tariff on remaining shipments, but that U.S. meat even at the higher rate will remain competitive, Warner said.

The deal is welcome news for a U.S. pork industry that has lost more than $6 billion in the last 27 months because of various factors, including input costs, H1N1 flu and blockages in trade to Russia and China. Talks to reopen China to U.S. pork are ongoing.

U.S. negotiators are also still trying to remove an effective Russian ban on American poultry over concerns about chlorine used in water to kill bacteria that cause food poisoning.

Russia, whose consumers bought more than $800 million worth of American poultry in 2008, initiated the ban on Jan. 1.