World meat industry news

The government will consider reducing the list of goods that are not subject to the ban on transportation by European trucks, Kommersant writes, citing its sources. According to them, the topic will be discussed with First Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Belousov. Its secretariat confirmed to the publication that a meeting on the issue is scheduled for March. Currently, restrictions do not apply to about 40 product groups, including animal products, plants, vegetables and fruits, nuts, cocoa, malt, starches, fats, acids, tobacco, alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, glass, pharmaceutical products, cosmetics. According to one of Kommersant's sources, the list could be reduced by 50%.

The ban on road freight transportation in Russia for companies from the EU countries, the UK, Norway and Ukraine is effective from October 10, 2022. The delivery of such goods is carried out by Russian carriers, using re-hooking or reloading in the border areas. Late last year, the federal government extended the ban until June 30, 2023.

Andrei Belousov's secretariat says that the list of goods can be determined after an analysis of existing practice and the positions of interested authorities. According to a source close to one of the ministries, the discussion is connected with the decision of the State Duma to study the issue of extending the approaches of Belarus in terms of transferring to road carriers in Russia.

Overloading products and food raw materials threatens to violate the temperature regime, loss of quality, and may also invalidate veterinary or phytosanitary certificates, the source says. In addition, recoupling will increase the cost of delivery by 15-17%. The Association of Confectionery Industry Enterprises ASKOND asked the Ministry of Agriculture to keep positions in the list that are not subject to reloading or are of critical importance, Vyacheslav Lashmankin, executive director of ASKOND, told Kommersant. For example, he points out, the list includes types of white chocolate that are transported in melted form and are not subject to reloading or repackaging. In addition, the additional complexity of logistics creates the risk that European ingredient producers will simply refuse to supply.

Dmitry Leonov, deputy chairman of the board of Rusprodsoyuz, points out that it is necessary to keep all food positions in exceptions for the uninterrupted production of products and price containment. Director General of the National Union of Milk Producers Artem Belov says that the association is counting on keeping food groups on the list. Chairman of the Presidium of the Association of Retail Companies (includes X5 Group, Magnit, Lenta, Auchan, etc.) Igor Karavaev adds that a stable regime for the supply of essential goods, including non-food items, is important, since the categories are in high demand and consumers are highly price sensitive.

Tamara Reshetnikova, General Director of Growth Technologies, draws attention to the fact that transportation conditions have a strong influence on the commercial quality of products and their consumer properties, and the humidity regime, and not just temperature, is also important for plants. “In any case, overloading has a bad effect on the products, since even when the machine is opened, the microclimate is disturbed. Also, imports usually come in commercial containers, and when reloaded, the product characteristics are reduced,” she commented. According to Reshetnikova, after the introduction of restrictions on the transportation of goods by European transport companies, there was no collapse, since imports from Europe are already small. “Of course, congestion will affect the overall market balance, quality and prices. So the fewer overloads, the better,” she says.

Evgeny Dyatlov, head of the procurement department for international transportation at FM Logistic, told Kommersant that the company has inspected all border customs and logistics terminals and sees that the infrastructure is ready to increase the delivery of goods with reloading. According to him, now the workload of the terminals is "extremely low" and the initiative will have a positive impact on the infrastructure and Russian carriers. Earlier, a source from Agroinvestor among road carriers said that the Russian road transport industry was one of the most affected by the sanctions, so it is necessary to develop a set of measures and solutions that, on the one hand, will take into account the interests of all domestic importers/exporters, and on the other hand, mitigate the damage to of the Russian motor transport business, and as a result, will help to contain the destabilization of the economy.