World meat industry news

From September 1, 2022, according to the order of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation No. 269 of April 28, 2022 “On approval of the Veterinary Rules for the Slaughter of Animals ...”), livestock slaughter should take place only in “places specially designated for these purposes: production facilities and other places intended for slaughter of animals." The rule applies if the resulting meat is intended to be used for retail rather than personal consumption. The only exception is the slaughter of poultry - these rules will come into force on March 1, 2023.

In early August, the government of the Irkutsk region turned to the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation with a proposal to extend for three years, until September 1, 2025, the period for the entry into force of the order on new veterinary rules for slaughtering livestock. Now in the Irkutsk region, the network of slaughterhouses is being expanded - in recent years alone, more than 10 such facilities have been built. However, this is not enough for such a large region. Accordingly, there is a risk that someone will start to circumvent the rules and they will not be observed everywhere. Therefore, the authorities of the Irkutsk region asked for an extension of the transition period.

Milknews learned how relevant this problem is for other members of the industry.

Deputy Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Chuvash Republic - Minister of Agriculture of the Chuvash Republic Sergey Artamonov said that specialized sites have been prepared in Chuvashia, although they are distributed unevenly across the regions.

“In some districts there are 7-9 sites, while in others there is only one. Some of the sites operated before, some we managed to prepare after the issuance of the relevant order. However, I am not a supporter of hasty changes, the transition should be painless. Therefore, we would support the postponement," he said.

According to Olga Abramova, Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Udmurt Republic for the agro-industrial complex, the new rules for slaughtering animals are designed to simplify the slaughtering procedure for private farms. However, in reality, the new rules can hardly be called “relaxation”.

“In fact, it will be possible to carry out backyard slaughter of cattle that left ten years ago,” she said. - If earlier a specific place was needed for slaughter - a specialized slaughterhouse, now it is just a specially designated place equipped with water, cleaning equipment, washing and disinfecting agents, etc. However, before and after slaughter, the animal will have to be examined by a veterinarian. There are risks that the quality of the veterinary service cannot be ensured due to the lack of doctors at the right time. In addition, this service will not be free for personal subsidiary plots. All this can lead to an increase in risks in the epizootic situation within the regions. So, there are still regions where African swine fever is detected. We are making great efforts to contain epizootic risks within the territory,

By the way, earlier in the media experts in the field of veterinary medicine noted that in connection with the new rules, a more stringent approach to veterinary and sanitary examination is needed. For example, an increase in the number of accredited laboratories that will be able to carry out veterinary and sanitary examination of peasant products on a more professional level.

In turn, Olga Abramova noted that, including from the point of view of maintaining veterinary well-being, she sees the development of personal subsidiary plots not through such rules, but through cooperation.

“Often personal subsidiary farms that want to engage in animal husbandry unite into cooperatives. We have an example when about 500 participants entered one corporate party. Also, the history of cooperation is very developed in Bashkiria, for example. However, within the framework of different regions of our vast country, the situation, of course, can be different,” she said.

The postponement of the entry into force of the new rules was also supported by the chairman of the board of the SEC "Levochsky" Alexander Fedorovsky.

“We are not ready for the new rules, just as none of our Novgorod farmers are ready. The nearest site from our enterprise is located at a distance of 125 kilometers. However, there are cases when it is necessary to slaughter an animal urgently. The new rules could cause problems for businesses,” he shared.

Meanwhile, Denis Dorodnykh, General Director of the Dmitrogorskoye Production Association (Agropromkomplektatsiya), said that the new rules will not affect the company's activities in any way, since the company slaughters livestock exclusively at specialized sites.

Andrey Nikolaev, General Director of Nizhny Novgorod JSC Kamenskoye, also supported him, noting that the company also carries out slaughter only at specialized sites and only forced slaughter, which manifests itself in isolated cases, caused problems.