Iryna Palamar: Compartmentalization is an opportunity to export Ukrainian pork despite ASF

Submitted by bashun on Thu, 01/04/2018 - 09:44

The situation with the African swine fever in Ukraine drives the producers to a standstill. The huge Russian market, which took away 96% of pork exports, was shut down as early as 2016 due to ASF.

Part of Belarus also refused our pork. In particular, a few months ago a restriction was imposed on the import of pigs from Odesa, Luhansk, Vinnytsia and Rivne regions. Neighboring Poland generally decided to wall ourselves off from us by introducing a project for its construction along its eastern border.

Such actions by neighbors do not improve Ukraine's reputation on the world stage.

It is clear that ASF painfully struck and the epizootic and economic situation inside the country. Here are just a few figures:

309 cases of ASF were registered in Ukraine on December 29, 2017 starting from 2012, with 161 cases, that is, more than half of the total number, only for 2017.

130 thousand pigs were destroyed because of the ASF in Ukraine from 2012.

114 $ costs from ASF for 1 head in households, $ 196 - in small and medium-sized pig farms, $ 460 - at large industrial complexes.

$ 27.6 million were lost because of ASF by only one farm, JSC “Multi-unit agricultural enterprise Kalyta” in 2015!

"The total losses from ASF are much greater than the actual funds that are lost from the death or slaughter of one pig," explains the chairman of the Ukrainian Stock Breeders Association Iryna Palamar. - It is also the depreciation of capital investments, the cost of additional storage or heat treatment of feed grain, losses associated with the suitability of doing business, the cost of anti-epizootic measures (disinfection of territory and premises, disposal of corpses and waste, quarantine, etc.). It should be added here and indirect losses at the country level, as not only pig production, but also the economy of the country as a whole suffers. In particular, the spread of ASF has already caused trade restrictions on the export of pig production, while pork exports in 2015 brought Ukraine $ 55 million."

What is the solution?

As we see, at first glance the situation is critical and seems hopeless, given the fact that the state has not yet introduced effective mechanisms to combat ASF. Despite the fact that there are effective solutions to the fight against ASF, and they have already been written on paper (in particular, the Ukrainian Stock Breeders Association, together with scientists and representatives of the State Service of Ukraine for Food Safety and Consumer Protection, developed the "Program for Combating ASF" for the next 5 years). Unfortunately, the Ministry of Agrarian Policy ignores it. After all, the project has not yet been signed and is gathering dust in the offices.

However, even if the above program were introduced already today, still get the status of a country free from ASF, Ukraine so quickly could not. It will take months and even years. Meanwhile, potential exporters are losing potential money.

Compartmentalization is the only opportunity for the export of Ukrainian pork today. World practice works in such a way that countries that are faced with the problem of ASF or other animal diseases not only take a number of measures to combat this problem, but also continue to be active participants in international trade through the mechanism of compartmentalization. That is why in many countries of the world, they face with one or another epizootic (epidemic of animal diseases), the procedure of compartmentalization - the division of cattle-breeding farms according to the degree of their biological protection has long been introduced. This means that those enterprises that have a sufficient (high) degree of protection against the infiltration of the disease on the territory of the economy (in this case we are talking about ASF, although the procedure applies to other animal diseases), are given a status of safe, so their products can freely leave to markets, including external ones.

In more detail, this procedure regulates the assignment of a pig farm or an enterprise for slaughtering pigs, processing and storing slaughter products in one of the compartments.

Compartment I - unprotected from the threat of the economy;

Compartment II - low-level farms;

Compartent III - medium-level farms;

Compartent IV - farms of a high level of protection.

In countries where сompartmentalization has been introduced at the legislative level (in particular, in Russia, where farms are distributed according to zoosanitary status since 2010), this procedure is voluntary and free of charge. That is, the economy itself makes a wish if it wants to undergo the procedure of сompartmentalization and obtain the corresponding status.

сапейко"Compartmentalization allows you to impose quarantine not according to the usual scheme, which entails certain limitations, in particular, the impossibility of exporting products, but by an entirely different formula," explains Vasyl Sapeiko, a researcher at the Institute of Veterinary Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia, candidate of veterinary sciences. - According to the affiliation of the enterprise to a particular compartment, it is given certain powers. This procedure will allow pig farms with a high level of protection without restrictions to take pork out of the district, region in case of disease."

What should the authorities do?

To begin the implementation of the procedure of compartmentalization, it is necessary, first of all, to approve the corresponding resolution by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine.

This draft resolution "On the introduction of compartmentalization," which was prepared by the State Procurement Service, has already been sent for coordination to the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine.
As the press service of the State Service of Ukraine for Food Safety and Consumer Protection informs, the compartmentalization will be fixed in the Instruction on the Prevention and Control of ASF and the Veterinary and Sanitary Requirements for the Maintenance of Pigs.

The mechanism for introducing this procedure is set out in the Terrestrial Animal Health Code of the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), of which Ukraine has been a member since 1994.

According to the Code (Chapters 4.3 and 4.4), the compartmentalization mechanism allows to preserve the opportunities for trade in livestock products for enterprises with an appropriate level of biosafety, confirmed by the competent authority of the state concerned. That is, businesses that confirm a compartment with a disease, according to international rules, will not be able to stop production and carry out trade operations, including export, even if they are in the quarantine zone of the corresponding disease.

"The introduction of the principle of compartmentalization of livestock farms in Ukraine will increase the effectiveness of national measures to prevent ASF," comments Iryna Palamar. - Together with the State Service of Ukraine for Food Safety and Consumer Protection and the FAO, we are working actively to develop changes to the Instruction for the Prevention and Control of African Swine Fever and the new Veterinary and Sanitary Requirements for the Maintenance of Pigs. The introduction of compartmentalization to encourage producers to increase biosecurity measures on their farms, as a result will not only facilitate the possibility of exporting pig products, but also improve the epizootic situation in the country as a whole.

Therefore, now it is very important that the Ministry of Agrarian Policy more quickly agree on this decision (which our Association recently appealed to the authorities) so that it is possible to launch the development of appropriate requirements for the veterinary and sanitary status of the compartment and approve the list of animal diseases for which compartments are being created. It should not be forgotten that nudulary dermatitis of cattle abounds at the borders of Ukraine, its spread across Europe and the Russian Federation is on a threatening scale. We cannot risk losing the export of cattle, a very promising direction for today."

 

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