Russian Roo Trade – Bouncing Back
- December 8th, 2012
- Posted by EUEditor
Russian inspectors are reported to have cleared the way to re-start the trade in kangaroo meat suspended in 2009.
The Adelaide exporting firm Macro meats has told Australian radio that visiting Russian officials ended a ban, imposed on claims that meat had been contaminated.
At the time of the ban, similar action was being taken by Russia against meat imports from Poland and Romania, widely seen as a sign of displeasure with former communist states intensifying their links to the European Union.
See EUAustralia Online, “Roos breed up but Russian ban staysâ€, 5.1.10. See also, “Australia-Russia: uranium deals and securityâ€, 29.4.10.
Withdrawal of the Russian orders was received as a heavy blow in Australia, taking out the preponderant market in a trade worth A$120-million a year.
Debate followed, with a heavy lobbying campaign focused on Russia, to get the business back, and animal rights groups pressing for it to stay, arguing that the culling of kangaroos was cruel, and that bacterial contamination was still occurring in the meat.
Macro Meats is a leading advocate of kangaroo cuisine, promoting the product as 98% fat free, and offering tips for dealing with that fact when cooking – to reduce dryness and get out the most flavour.
Other leading patrons, dogs and cats, appear to enjoy it any old way.
Culling is intensified after heavy wet seasons that cause kangaroo populations to breed up, as occurred over much of the Australian inland three years ago.
The Russian ban was said to have jeopardised some 2500 jobs in outback towns, and producers there are now hoping that the lifting of that ban will extend to themselves as well.
Reference
The Animal Protection Institute, Sydney, “Contamination of kangaroo meat exposed on Latelineâ€, 28.8.12. http://www.voiceless.org.au/content/contamination-kangaroo-meat-exposed-lateline, (8.12.12).
Macros Meats – Gourmet game, (Home), Adelaide. http://www.macromeats-gourmetgame.com.au/, (8.12.12).
Pictures Macro Meats