Russia's Agricultural Ministry has plans to reduce the national meat import quota for 2012 to include poultry and pork, the head of the ministry's Agricultural and Food Market Regulation Department, Ilya Shestakov, said on Thursday.
"We presuppose the gradual, consistent reduction in the meat import quota," Shestakov said. The ministry will begin cutting quotas starting in 2011, he added.
The specific parameters of the new quotas will be outlined by mid-2011, Shesatkov said.
On Tuesday, First Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov said Russia would cut its 2011 poultry import quota to 350,000 tons from the previously planned 600,000 tons. Earlier, the 2011 poultry quota was set at 600,000 tons.
"We expect, that the domestic demand for poultry will be saturated by 2013, and those for pork by 2015," Shestakov said.
MOSCOW, November 25 (RIA Novosti)
