TheMeatSite Newsletter - 10 November 2010

TheMeatSite Weekly Newsletter

Wednesday 10th November 2010

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Welcome to this week's newsletter

Editorial - Russia Confirms Ban on Frozen Poultry Meat Sales

Russia will only allow sale of chilled, and not frozen poultry from next January, the head of the Federal Service for Supervision of Consumer Rights Protection and Human Welfare has said.

"The transition to chilled poultry was approved in March 2008. There will be no turnover of frozen poultry in Russia from January 1, 2011. It is an outdated and rough technology, which leads to a loss of many of the useful qualities of meat," the official said.

Russia's poultry producers are urging for the ban to be overturned to prevent some consumers being deprived to product. Belarus, however, is confident that it can continue to supply enough chilled poultry meat to meet demand.

Revenues from Brazilian exports of beef should reach US$5 billion and a volume of 1.8 million tonnes this year. These estimates came from the new chairman of the Brazilian Meat Exporting Industries Association (Abiec), Antonio Jorge Camardell. Compared to 2009, the forecasts for this year represent increases of 22 per cent in value and 50 per cent in volume.

In New Zealand last week, PigCare, a new pig welfare accreditation scheme, was launched, while New Zealand Pork announced the results of the much-anticipated independent welfare audit of pig farms.

New Zealand Pork's CEO said that the 115 farms that passed the audit can have their meat labelled '100% New Zealand Pork, PigCare Accredited'. Labelled meat will appear in retail and wholesale outlets from 1 December, and only farms which have passed the audit will be able to use that label.

Pig producers in Australia were angered when it was reported that Coles supermarket was applying its ban on pig meat produced using sow stalls only to domestic product. Subsequently, Coles is said to have clarified that its decision applies to all fresh pig meat, whether home-produced or imported.

And finally, researchers at the University of Aarhus in Denmark have uncovered clues on how stress affects the pig's meat quality at the cellular level. They have succeeded in identifying metabolites that could potentially be used as markers for slaughter stress.

Jackie Linden

This Week's Feature Articles

We have 6 new features this week:

GLOBAL POULTRY TRENDS - Just Five Countries Produce 80 Per Cent of World's Turkeys
Most of the world's turkey meat is produced in just five countries: US, Brazil, Germany, France and Italy. Starting the new series of Global Poultry Trends, industry expert, Terry Evans, outlines future production trends exclusively for ThePoultrySite.

Brazil's Beef Sector Becoming More Sustainable
Brazil is more and more developing a sustainable livestock and agriculture production systems and moving away from the image of deforestation, writes TheMeatSite senior editor, Chris Harris.

International Meat Review - 28 October 2010
The latest figures from the USDA show that US beef exports rose by 24 per cent year on year according to the International Meat Review.

Welfare Aspects of Poultry Stunning
Electrical stunning resulted in some level of learned response and therefore cannot be considered to be totally benign, according to researchers, following a preliminary trial into the welfare implications of electrical stunning.

World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates - November 2010
The forecast of total US meat production is raised for 2010 and 2011, according to the latest USDA World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates.

China - Poultry and Products Annual 2010
Chicken meat output in China is forecast to increase a further four per cent in 2011, write Michael Woolsey and Jianping Zhang in the latest GAIN Report from the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service.