A SUSPENSION on meat imports into Russia is crippling Australia's kangaroo meat industry and causing major headaches for several beef and lamb processors.
Russia has whacked an indefinite suspension on some Australian meat imports from August 1 citing food security and quarantine concerns.
The issue was first raised in a Senate inquiry in February where concerns were aired about a ban on some beef and game meat exports because Russia had raised its quarantine requirements on meat imports.
Now nearly every country that sells meat to Russia, including Australia, has been caught up in a suspension on imports in the past two months, with major suppliers like the US, the European Union, Argentina, Brazil and Canada also hit.
The suspension in Australia applies to 19 meat establishments and six wild game processing plants, with 12 beef processors believed caught up in the ban.
While the Government is still struggling to get some answers from Moscow, it insists the majority of exports into Russia - a potential meat exporting gold mine for Australia - were continuing unaffected.
Minister for Agriculture Tony Burke is on annual leave this week, but he told ABC radio last week that his understanding was that the suspension was based on "minor technical issues" and there was optimism these issues could be worked through.
"There's a large number of countries which have had similar suspensions from Russia, and so we're now having our officials meet and work through with Russia precisely what this is," Mr Burke said last week.
"We continue to have a high level of confidence that all of our Australian standards are being met.
"The Russians are saying that they believe there are some problems with sanitary control systems.
"On the precise detail of exactly what they want changed, that's something that we're still having our officials work through with them."
Mr Burke said he met with his Russian counterpart earlier this year who emphasised the need for Australia to meet their standards.
"Russia has handled this issue with Australia in a way that they've handled it with a large number of other countries, which is, to conduct audits, and then go to mass suspensions and then move fairly slowly on the detail as to precisely what it is that they want fixed," he said.
Mr Burke said the Government was working on having AQIS officials meet with Russian authorities to establish the problems behind the suspension and how it could be lifted for Australia.
Department of Agriculture officials confirmed in February that a veterinary officer had been posted in Russia to try and understand the country's new quarantine requirements and help Australian processors understand the new procedures being demanded.
In Australia, processing industry insiders have revealed that officer has not been successful in meeting with Russian authorities to date and the understanding in Australian meat sector circles was the suspension was more to do with politics, rather than food safety or quarantine requirements.
The suspension has triggered a trade war in Europe, and could have an impact on Russia's accession to the World Trade Organisation, which it has been lobbying to join for some time.
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