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According to informations published by the ICEX, the drastic tendency of the Russian meat exports that started last year due to the severe health restrictions has kept on during the first trimester of 2014, with a drop by 21.7% with respect to the same period in 2013.
Russia is almost self-sufficient with respect to fowl, but it needs to import great amounts of beef and pork. During the first three months of 2014, the imports of beef fell by 35.2% with respect to the previous year, and those of frozen pork dropped by 32%.
In the face of the fall in the supply, the Russian government and the local producers' associations try to favour the domestic meat production and to find new foreign markets.
The Spanish meat industry, which is the first exporting sector of the Spanish food and agriculture industry, is being directly affected by this situation, because Russia is its eighth market in terms of importance. In 2013, the Spanish meat and edible offal exports to Russia fell almost by 56% with respect to year 2012, going from €262 million to barely €116 million. The data of the first trimester of 2014 are even worse, and show a fall by 97.4% with respect to the same period in the previous year.
Thursdau May 22, 2014/ ICEX/ Spain.
http://www.icex.es/
