Chinese pork products will replace banned pork exports from the West, including Denmark, which are unlikely to win back their place in the Russian market even if the present ban is lifted, according to Russia’s meat products watchdog. 
Russia’s Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance said in a statement on the agency’s website on August 20 that “the Russian government now is actively cooperating with China’s veterinary authorities on pork supplies from certain highly integrated Chinese enterprises”.
Russia imported 619,200 metric tons of pork valued at $2.13 billion in 2013, with Denmark, Germany, Canada and Brazil as its main suppliers, according to data from Russia’s Federal Customs Service. The country purchased 79,300 metric tons of Canadian pork for $246.3 million and received $19 million worth of pork from the US last year.
Tian Zhihong, a professor specializing in the international trade of agricultural products at China Agricultural University in Beijing, said even though Russia’s move is still at an early stage, it will have profound political and economic implications because it comes at a critical time when the US and its European allies are trying to squeeze the country’s trade space in the world market.
Read more: China Daily
