Talks between Russian and EU veterinary and health officials aimed at preventing a blanket Russian ban on the import of EU beef from January 1st continued late into last night.
Irish officials were anxiously monitoring the talks between senior EU veterinary staff and Yevgeny Nepoklonov, the Russian veterinary and phytosanitary representative to the EU.
Ireland exports beef valued at more than €30 million to Russia annually and other food products valued at €70 million. These exports would be hit by any ban.
The EU commissioner for public health, Marcos Kyprianou, is travelling to Moscow on December 18th to try to broker a deal with Russia, which says it will accept food from individual member states based on its own criteria.
It has already banned all Polish beef imports as well as flowers, grain, fruit and vegetables, and other meat and meat products after finding shipments accompanied by forged safety certificates.
Russia has threatened to ban imports of meat products from the EU from January 1st, citing concerns over animal health in new EU members Bulgaria and Romania, where livestock has been infected with classical swine fever and bluetongue.
Russia has imposed many bans on food imports over the last five years, including the most recent ban on the import of cattle and beef products from Sweden last April, when the first case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) was confirmed there.
Observers believe Russia is attempting to break EU trade unity by indicating it would accept products from individual countries through bilateral agreements.