vlad.tribnet.com / Issue #149 / Business / Reading article...

The federal government issued an order in late August to ban the import of Chinese meat following reports of the spread of highly contagious strains of hoof-and-mouth disease in southern China.

However, it lifted the the embargo Aug. 31 after “the Chinese government implemented a strict quarantine on three provinces,” said Vladimir Zorin, chairman of the krai committee on processed food.

The virulent microbes, known as A and Asia-1, are easily transmitted from animals to humans, said the deputy head veterinarian for the krai.

Chinese beef, pork and mutton fills 80-90 percent of Primorye meat-processing companies’ supply, according to the krai press center.

The animals are slaughtered in China and shipped to Primorye for further processing into the cuts sold in markets and kiosks.

Directors of the companies spent the week of the ban desperately searching for alternative, affordable suppliers and predicting a marked increase in end-cost to consumers.

At the press conference announcing Moscow’s order, representatives of Primorye factories and the krai food processing committee expressed frustration at the federal boycott.

“We don’t even know how fast this is spreading yet,” said chairman Vladimir Zorin. “The disease started in a southern province near Taiwan. Is it really going to get here so fast?”

Moscow opened the borders again Sept. 1 after working closely with krai doctors and other officials. Zorin praised Moscow’s decision to reverse the ban on the meat, saying that it allowed transport again before the price rose.

“It all happened too fast to affect us,” added Vitaly Yakovlev, director of Myasocombinat, a Vladivostok meat factory.