Poland/Economy/Russia
Warsaw (Puls Biznesu) – Polish internal security agency ABW is investigating the process of controls conducted in meat plants by Russian veterinary services. ‘We are analysing certain context of those controls’, Magdalena Stanczyk from ABW said only. She refused to give any details and comment on whether ABW was co-operating with its Russian peer FSB.
In the first round of controls, out of 75 checked plants only 19 received exports permissions enabling them selling their products to Russia. Some of the Polish meat giants, including Animex, Morliny, Duda or Prime Food did not get the approval of Russian veterinary doctors. One of Polish rightwing party PiS revealed that the majority of accepted plants had good contacts with the exports company Alsero. Its CEO is said to have extremely good relations with chief veterinary officers in both Poland and Russia.
‘Small number of companies exporting to Russia is our problem, too, because prices increase’, Witold Sowinski, the managing director of Alsero said. Puls Biznesu did not manage to contact Romuald Robaczewski, Alsero CEO yesterday. Next to ABW, investigation may be started by Polish competition authorities UOKiK. ‘Two weeks ago some companies which had not received exports permissions started preparing a complaint to UOKiK’, a source told Puls Biznesu. As for yesterday, UOKiK did not receive any letter.
In 2003, Polish meat plants’ exports to Russia amounted to USD 357 million (EUR 286.2 million), including USD 84 million of meat. In the first quarter of 2004, meat exports amounted to only USD 12,9 million. At the beginning of June, when new regulations were introduced by Russia, exports from Poland nearly ceased.
(USD 1 = EUR 0.802)