Russia warns of quarantine if swine fever spreads in south

MOSCOW Russia’s food safety watchdog said on Thursday it would have to introduce a quarantine that could hit agricultural exports if there were more outbreaks of African Swine Fever (ASF) at pork breeding facilities in the southern Krasnodar region.

The watchdog said on its website a quarantine could affect, for example, grain exports. Analysts said this would be due to concerns ASF – a highly contagious hemorrhagic fever among pigs – could be transmitted via animal feed.

Russia is one of the world’s largest wheat exporters.

However, the Rosselkhoznadzor watchdog played down the significance of the warning when contacted by Reuters.

“There is no need to impose any significant restrictions, including export restrictions, now,” Aleksey Alekseenko, a spokesman, said.

Experts at Rosselkhoznadzor are currently reviewing the situation and conclusions are expected to be made in the next couple of days, he added. There have been ten ASF outbreaks in the Krasnodar region in November.

Russia, the world’s second-largest wheat exporter which has enforced trade restrictions in previous years, has recently promised a stable tax regime and support for grain traders, whom it will need to boost exports in coming years.

Its total 2016 grain crop is expected to reach a record high of 117 million tonnes, the Agriculture Ministry has said.

(Reporting by Polina Devitt and Olga Popova; Editing by Mark Potter)