Rosselkhoznadzor presents South Africa with lists of potential Russian meat suppliers

MOSCOW. Aug 16 (Interfax) - Russian meat producers are preparing to ship their products to South Africa.

The prospects for trade were discussed during video consultations with representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture, Land Reforms and Rural Development of South Africa, Rosselkhoznadzor said.

At the request of the veterinary service of South Africa, Rosselkhoznadzor sent information regarding the safety of Russian beef, pork and poultry meat, as well as lists of enterprises interested in supplying their products and which have passed the necessary inspections. South Africa is planning to send an additional request in the coming days in order to assess the potential risks of importing these products.

The representatives from South Africa said that their producers are also interested in supplying similar livestock products to the Russian market. "The Russian side, in response, asked its colleagues to provide official information on the epizootic situation in South Africa, in particular, detailed information on the spread of such diseases as foot-and-mouth disease, African swine fever, bird flu, bluetongue, bovine spongiform encephalopathy and a number of others, as well as a list of enterprises interested in the supply of each type of livestock product," the report says. "After that, we can talk about the conditions for importing meat products, as well as wild animals from South Africa, which are of interest to Russian business."

During the consultations, the issue of supplying sheep embryos from South Africa to the countries of the Eurasian Economic Union was also raised. The draft veterinary certificate for this type of product was proposed by Russia in November 2022 and is still awaiting approval from the veterinary service of South Africa. South Africa promised to expedite the procedure for reviewing the document, Rosselkhoznadzor reports.

In addition, experts from the two countries discussed the issue of preparing and signing a memorandum on scientific and technical cooperation with research institutes subordinate to Rosselkhoznadzor, as well as prospects for cooperation in the field of the joint development and production of veterinary vaccines. Russia also suggested using electronic veterinary certificates for export-import operations. This will simplify and speed up inspections of supervised cargo at the border, the agency said. South Africa promised to look into the proposal.