Domestic meat producers have passed quality checks due to import bans into Russia. Among them are enterprises from the Vitebsk region.

Отечественные мясопроизводители прошли проверку качества в связи с запретами на поставку в Россию. В их числе и предприятия Витебщины

Information related to alleged supplies of substandard meat from Belarus to Russia has been stirring public attention with remarkable regularity lately.

Memories of Rosselkhoznadzor's ban in October on products from the Orsha Meat Processing Plant due to the detection of the ASF virus genome in meat products by Russian specialists are still fresh, and on November 26, several more Belarusian enterprises were blacklisted. Among them are the largest Vitebsk region producers – OJSC "Vitebsk Broiler Poultry Factory" and "Vitebsk Meat Processing Plant".

At the same time, it should be noted that back in October, the Department of Veterinary and Food Supervision of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food of Belarus initiated a relevant investigation. At that time, the department stated that the epizootic situation at the republic's pig farming facilities regarding African swine fever was favorable and did not raise any suspicions. Furthermore, regional veterinary laboratories and the Belarusian State Veterinary Center conduct laboratory monitoring to detect the ASF virus in every batch of pigs slaughtered at meat processing plants.

The November ban was imposed by Rosselkhoznadzor due to the alleged detection of microorganisms harmful to health in the products of Belarusian companies. However, our specialists provide well-reasoned arguments in defense of the quality of domestic products. According to BelTA, the Belarusian State Veterinary Center examined over 1.2 thousand samples for ASF from October 30 to November 20, with a 100% negative result. According to the director of the institution, Alexander Aksenov, moreover, a national program for monitoring residual amounts of harmful substances (antibiotics, hormones, etc.) is currently in effect in Belarus.

“As for the combines that the Russian side made claims against, they were also inspected by us. The harmful substances that the Russians identified were not found in our studies”, – he emphasized.

Speaking about the reliability of the studies, Alexander Aksenov noted that two weeks ago, a European Union mission to monitor residual amounts of harmful substances visited the center.

“There were no remarks regarding our laboratory”, – said the director.

Elena Sys, "Vitebskiye Vesti"