Serbia "lucky to avoid red card" over meat export scandal

Serbia "lucky to avoid red card" over meat export scandal

“An investigation into the entire case is still underway,” Ljajić told the RTS, adding that oversights related to the export of meat from Serbia to Russia "could be dealt with on a daily basis and that there was no systemic failure."

Presenting his opinion, which is still to be confirmed by the investigation, Ljajić said that the issue at hand "had to do with negligence and stupidity of one of our exporters,” rather than “intent to deceive somebody.”

“Of course, we confirmed that the mistake had been made, and no matter what the intention was, consequences are serious and could have been even worse,” the minister said, pointing out that the Russian side had expressed “absolute understanding.”

For now, we have been shown a “yellow card,” although we deserved a red one, said Ljajić, stressing that controls in pork trade between Serbia and Russia would be much stricter in the future.

He also spoke about "the stupidity of one exporter, whose shipment contained packages of meat with stamps reading 'Made in Croatia' and 'Made in Spain'."

Serbia is currently the only European country that has a permit to export pork to Russia, but this applies only to products produced in Serbia itself.

Earlier in the week, Russian officials announced that the exporter who shipped meat produced in third countries had been banned.

Head of Russia's Veterinary-Sanitary Inspection Aleksei Alekseyenko said on Tuesday, as hemet with Ljajić in Moscow, that Russia was ready to meet Serbia halfway when it comes to solving the current problem, but warned that Serbia must do everything to make sure such transgressions do not occur again.

Lately, the Russia official noted, meat from third countries - Croatia, Spain, Hungary - arrived in Russia with markings suggesting it was from Serbia, a practice that violated international rules.

Alekseyenko told the Beta news agency that unless Serbia acted to prevent this, Russia could impose "more serious restrictions."

On Wednesday, Ljajić said electronic communication would be established with the Russian Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance and Russian experts would come to Serbia to conduct training and controls and provide guidance for exports.

"We have translated from Russian about 4,500 pages of new regulations, declarations, and guidelines with export requirements by the Customs Union of Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan," Ljajić said, adding that “the rules will have to be strictly respected.”

Ljajić said that the Russian officials he had talked to had reminded him that “we enjoy excellent reputation” and that Serbia was the only European country with a license for export of pork Russia at the moment.

Beside the controversy over the origin of meat, some media in Serbia also reported that the meat exported in some cases "contained worms."

“Nobody even mentioned anything about the speculations about worms in our media,” said Ljajić, explaining that "those worms had not been found in meat at all, but rather in the offal waste from a container ready for transport to a rendering plant."

Seven producers are currently exporting pork to Russia, where there is a lot of interest for import of our meat and meat products, and the case under investigation is expected to end positively, Ljajić said.