Canadian pork industry readjusts to meet new Russian import requirements

by SUSAN MANN

Ontario pork processor, Quality Meat Packers Limited, is working with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency to avert a Russian-imposed temporary suspension of its frozen pork shipments to that country.

Jim Gracie, Quality vice-president of sales and marketing, says the company was informed in December its exports to Russia would be temporarily suspended as of Jan. 23. The Russian federal veterinary and phytosanitary surveillance service, Rosselkhoznadzor, says it found traces of the feed additive ractopamine in the pork.

This is a violation of the veterinary and sanitary requirements of the Customs Union and Russia, Rosselkhoznadzor says in a Jan. 9 press release on its website. The agency, based in Moscow, also announced temporary export suspensions or enhanced surveillance of other processors in Canada along with some in the United States and Brazil.

Gracie says any pork meat going to Russia has to be free of ractopamine. But the feed additive is approved by Health Canada for use here.

Ractopamine is used to promote leanness in animals raised for meat.

On the CFIA website it says Paylean 20 Premix by Elanco, containing ractopamine hydrochloride at 20 grams per kilogram, is approved for use in swine (barrows and gilts) and heavy turkey (toms and hens) only.

Lisa Murphy Gauthier, CFIA spokesperson, says by email it’s also allowed for use in Australia and Brazil – the world’s largest producers of pork. In addition, last July the United Nations Codex Alimentarius Commission adopted an international standard for safe residue levels of ractopamine and Canada’s requirements are consistent with this standard. The commission is the United Nations’ food safety and quality standards body.

Martin Charron, vice president for market access and trade development at Canada Pork International, says ractopamine is approved for use in some 40 countries around the world, including the United States, but some countries prohibit it, such as China, Taiwan, the European Union – and Russia. Canada Pork International is the pork industry’s market development agency.

Charron says the Russians are asking for some form of guarantee that the pigs used for pork products destined for their market haven’t been fed ractopamine. Canada Pork International is working with the Canadian Pork Council and the Canadian Meat Council to “develop a kind of program which we would then submit to the CFIA.” If the CFIA approves it, that organization would submit it to Russia.

The other Canadian plant currently facing a temporary export suspension to Russia as of Jan. 23 is Aliments Asta Inc. of Saint-Alexandre-de-Kamouraska, Quebec. The Russian agency says due to an initial detection of violations, four other Canadian plants are under enhanced laboratory control and could face temporary export suspensions if further violations are detected. The plants are: Maple Leaf Foods Inc. of Brandon, Manitoba; Fearmans Pork of Burlington, Ontario; Great Lakes Specialty Meats of Canada Inc. of Mitchell, Ontario; and Atrahan Transformation Inc. of Yamachiche, Quebec.

Officials with Rosselkhoznadzor, Ontario Pork and the Canadian Pork Council couldn’t be reached for comment.

Gracie says the amount of pork Quality exports to Russia is confidential. But they ship various cuts of frozen pork to that country.

Charron says based on volume, Russia is Canada’s second to third largest market for frozen pork after the United States and Japan. For the first 10 months of 2012, Canadian plants shipped 180,000 tonnes of frozen pork to Russia.

Gracie says during December, Quality worked with CFIA to implement new plans and protocols in its plant to buy and segregate hogs with and without ractopamine. “Those plans are in place and we need to work with CFIA to get them to Russia authorities and that will start the process of getting the suspension lifted.”

Charron says currently pork shipments going to Russia have to be tested for ractopamine and “that’s something the plants (in Canada) are taking responsibility for.”

Quality Meat Packers exports pork to other countries in addition to Russia and ractopamine has always been an “issue with sending pork into China,” which is a major market for them, and a few other minor markets, Gracie says, noting the company already had protocols and measures in place to provide ractopamine-free pork to the Chinese market.

Gracie says he doesn’t think this is the beginning of a trend around the world to reject Canadian pork due to ractopamine. But “things could change at any time with countries as to what their requirements are for importing pork or any kind of meat products into their areas.”

For example, the requirements for the Russian market changed this past fall and are affecting pork exports from other regions along with Ontario, such as the United States, Quebec, and Manitoba. The Russian move to require ractopamine-free pork unfolded during the fall “and we’ve been working to keep up with that, ” Gracie says.

For Ontario, the Russian rejection of ractopamine-containing pork means the industry has to work hard to ensure there are policies and procedures in place to make sure pork going to Russia is free of the feed additive. Asked if there is an adequate supply of ractopamine-free pork so Quality can fill its markets, Gracie says “it’ll play itself out over this year.”

But he described the market as “unsure right now. It’s a time of uncertainty.” BF