On January 18 a meeting between Head of the Rosselkhoznadzor Sergey Dankvert and Secretary of Agricultural Protection of the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food Supply of Brazil Luis Eduardo Pacifici Rangel was held within the framework of the official visit of the Russian delegation to Berlin aimed at the participation in the business programme of the Green Week — 2018 Exhibition.

First Deputy Chairman of the Council of the Federation Committee for Agrarian and Food Policy Sergey Lisovsky also took part in the event.

The key topic of the dialogue was the discussion of the ban imposed by the Rosselkhoznadzor on beef and pork supplies from Brazil because of the detection of muscle growth hormone, namely ractopamine, in the mentioned products.

Sergey Dankvert reminded the Brazilian colleagues that a similar issue had been raised several years before. At that time the Brazilian colleagues managed to find a way to supply safe meat compliant with the standards of the Eurasian Economic Union legislation to Russia, but some time passed and the Brazilian veterinary service lost control of the situation.

The Brazilian colleagues submitted the official materials on the violations of veterinary and sanitary requirements detected in Brazilian meat supplied to Russia related to the presence of ractopamine. At the same time it was stated that Brazil had completely revised its approach to animal muscle growth stimulants. In particular, it is prohibited to use ractopamine in cattle raising.

In this context it was suggested that the inspection of Brazilian establishments mainly not using ractopamine at animal raising stage by the Russian experts could be arranged. An agreement was reached that the Brazilian party would submit the list of relevant establishments to the Rosselkhoznadzor.

Sergey Dankvert also noted the willingness of Russian suppliers to export fish products to Brazil and emphasized that in that respect the Russian party was expecting reciprocal activities from the Brazilian colleagues. This refers to 10 establishments interested in export and willing to meet the requirements of the Brazilian legislation. The Russian party has been taking efforts to resolve this issue for the past two years. In response, the Brazilian colleagues assured the Rosselkhoznadzor that on their part they would adopt all the possible measures to settle the matter.

In addition, Russian grain product supplies to Brazil were discussed. The Brazilian party reported that the list of Russian companies approved for Russian weedy wheat export including 9 establishments had been formulated. Before the end of the current week the Brazilian party plans to complete the Russian translation of the relevant appeal addressed to the Rosselkhoznadzor and to publish the information enabling the launch of Russian wheat supplies on the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food Supplies web-site.

The parties also addressed the issue of GM foods. The Rosselkhoznadzor announced its intention to submit an official enquiry to the Ministry concerning the production of two new registered GM lines of soybeans and soybean oil meal.