How Russian import ban will impact Canadians
Canada`s pork industry, which accounts for about half of the country`s
overall agricultural exports to Russia, will be hurt most by the food ban. In
2013, Canada shipped $260 million worth of (mostly frozen) pork to Russia, but
that`s only a small fraction of the $3.2 billion in pork exports that Canada
sent to 120 countries worldwide, according to Jim Laws, executive director of
the Canadian Meat Council. `We have many other markets we can sell to ` United
States, Japan, China, Australia, South Korea, Indonesia, Mexico,` Laws said.
With shipments taking up to three weeks to travel from Montreal to St.
Petersburg, Laws anticipates managing the pork products` return to Canada or
diversion to other countries will be challenging. `We might have upwards of
1,000 containers on ships heading to Russia right now,` he said. But since the
pork shipped to Russia is frozen, it has a long shelf life of six months, he
said.
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