Today we will speak of Eastern Europe and the livestock sector. When we speak of the Eastern countries quickly comes to our mind Russia, the giant right?  it is an Eastern but not the only, we must not forget Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, Latvia and Georgia among others.

But first let’s focus on Russia, which bases its main economic market in the export of oil, gas, crude steel and aluminum. Just watching what exports it indicates that it is a country rich in natural resources.

The country has undergone major changes since the end of the Soviet Union, leaving an isolated centrally planned economy to an economy of globally integrated market. Economic reforms in the 1990s privatized much of the industry, with the notable exception of the energy and military sectors.

The cattle sector has declined 50% since 1991. This decline has been accompanied by the reduction of state subsidies. The low productivity of the sector is due to the inefficiency of the reforms undertaken to redirect it towards a market economy. The structure of land ownership is distributed as follows: 69.1% of public property (state or local), 29.3% of individual private property and 1.6% belonging to legal persons (agricultural enterprises). Nothing foreign investment in the sector is hampered by the inability of foreign companies acquires land for agricultural use in Russia.

Because of the vast territory it has in Russia there are a variety of climates, however, broadly considered predominantly continental climate, characterized by high thermal variability. The area corresponding to the Caucasus has a subtropical climate. In Siberia, summers are hot, with temperatures up to 30 ° C, and extremely cold winters. Rainfalls commonly are low. Reading this seems unfavorable than cattle country, but as indeed has much surface and a country with a significant cattle power.

Among his contribution emphasizes the production of cattle, pigs, sheep, reindeer and birds. One area that is becoming very severe thanks to Phytosanitary Surveillance Service and Veterinary Russia (Rosselkhoznadzor) is the health related with this kind of animals, under the direction and took the European Union.

All meat producers seek to maximize your profit and minimize cost, which seems at first base of any business. To do almost all producers have been using so far antibiotic growth promoters (APC) to improve the productivity of their animals. Getting animals initially showed better conversion rates, a situation that brings more profit to the farmer because he sold more kilos of meat using less food.

However, many studies have indicated that APC have several drawbacks when talking about food safety, one of them is that they leave residues in the final product as we all know comes to our homes, and as more and more people are becoming aware of have a good supply Russia has decided to get serious in this matter.

In Russia antibiotic growth promoters (APC) are not prohibited. The only limitation is a withdrawal period of three weeks prior to slaughter. The regulation is being developed jointly with the WTO (World Trade Organization).

In short, and to end the presentation of Russia today, we are moving towards a healthier production, where sanitation is premium over many other aspects. Next week I shall speak of possible alternatives to those APC already replicated in Russia

Yours faithfully and have a nice day.