Washington - U.S. pork producers have urged the U.S. Agriculture Department to donate pork to Russia to help reduce a price-depressing surplus at home.
In recent years, U.S. exporters have sold a sizeable quantity of pork to Russia under the agriculture department's GSM-102 export credit guarantee program.
However, Russia was recently suspended from GSM-102 after it missed a $21- million debt payment to the USDA's Commodity Credit Corp in mid-August.
“You can't really second-guess that decision, given the situation now in Russia,” said Nick Giordano,vice president for trade at the National Pork Producers Council.
In the first half of 1998, Russia was the third largest export market for U.S. pork. But current propsects are not as bright because of the suspension and the recent rouble devaluation, Giordano said.
U.S. pork donations would help Russia by putting food on the shelves and by providing jobs for Russian meat processors who make sausage out of U.S. pork trimmings, he said.
It also would trim a domestic pork surplus that has pushed U.S. pork prices to “disasterously” low levels, Giordano said.
The NPPC has not suggested a specific amount for donation. But with low U.S. prices and larger U.S. stocks, “the more, the better, obviously,” Giordano said.
President Bill Clinton recently visited Russia without making any offer of new U.S. assistance.
Instead, Clinton urged Russia to stay the course of tough market-oriented reforms rather than look to the outside world for additional aid.
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