Week of Significant Deals for the Meat Industry

A beef and lamb trade deal between Russia and the UK expected to be worth up to £100 million over three years was finalised in Moscow last week by Russian Deputy Prime Minister, Arkady Dvorkovich and UK Environment Secretary, Owen Paterson.

The deal marks the end of an 18-year ban on British beef and lamb imposed by Russia following the outbreak of BSE in the mid-1990s. It includes a £7 million contract for lamb meat and opens the door to a further £2 million contract for beef offal.

In the United States, Smithfield Foods' shareholders have voted overwhelmingly to approve the proposed strategic combination with Shuanghui International Holdings Limited.

At a Special Meeting of Smithfield shareholders on 24 September, more than 96 per cent of the votes cast were in favour of the transaction, which represents approximately 76 per cent of Smithfield's total outstanding shares of common stock.

Reacting to the news, Smithfield Foods Inc. CEO, Larry Pope, called the deal a "great transaction" for shareholders, US farmers and agriculture. The President of the National Farmers Union, however, said: "It is a sad day for family farmers and consumers when the largest pork processing company in the United States is sold to a Chinese interest."

Countervailing duty orders on warmwater shrimp from China, Ecuador, India, Malaysia and Viet Nam have now been lifted after the US Trade Commission found the imports are of no threat to the US industry.

The customs union for Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan has resolved to allow poultry and beef meat imports from Colombia.

The Government of Canada and the Canadian Pork Council have agreed that mandatory traceability requirements for the PigTrace Canada programme will take effect on 1 July 2014.

A majority of employees at Danish Crown has voted against a proposal aimed to re-establish some of the pig production in Denmark - which in recent years has quit the country - thereby safeguarding jobs in Danish slaughterhouses.

And last but not least, European Union farmers now know where they stand on payment changes, following the completion of the political negotiations on reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).