Putin Sparks Russia Pork Boom as Import Ban Expands Hog Breeding
- Output surge ends buying binge as prices drop from U.S. to EU
- After record imports in 2012, Russia seeks self-sufficency
Pigs stand in pens at a Interessengemeinschaft der Schweinehalter Deutschlands (ISN) consortium pig farm in Lohne, Germany, on Tuesday, May 27, 2014. European Union pig farms are missing out on a boom in U.S. prices after Russia banned imports from the 28-country bloc, spurring Brussels to file a World Trade Organization case today after talks to reopen trade failed.
Photographer: Krisztian Bocsi/BloombergHog farmers in Russia are producing so much pork that they are selling it overseas just three years after the country was importing more of the meat than any other buyer except Japan.
Domestic output has increased 26 percent in four years to the highest yet, and imports have plunged by more than 80 percent from a peak in 2012, U.S. Department of Agriculture data show. The industry’s resurgence, which led to slumping hog prices from the U.S. to Germany, got some help from a Russian government increasingly uneasy about relying on foreign food supplies and its strained relationship with neighbors.