The Russian Agricultural Ministry has published a draft technical regulation on the safety of feed and feed additives, aimed at facilitating trade between the countries of the Eurasia Economic Union (EEU), a trade bloc of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia.
The regulation is expected to remove administrative obstacles for the export of feed, feed additives, and premixes between the EEU member states, Sergey Mikhnyuk, executive director of the Russian National Feed Union, commented.
The EEU member states have been negotiating on the technical regulations since 2010, the Russian Gazette, the Russian government's official publication, reported.
The document should also introduce uniform standards for the content of pesticides, toxic substances, such as mercury, arsenic, cadmium, and lead, as well as radionuclides and similar substances, said Tatyana Kolchanova, general director of the Russian Union of Zoo Industry Enterprises.
Feed, premixes and feed additives are regulated in each EEU member state by national laws, which also set different production, storage and transportation standards, Mikhnyuk said. Following the adoption of unified rules, businesses will no longer have to bear extra costs to comply with regulations on both sides of the border, he added.
However, it is not clear when this may happen. Mikhnyuk indicated that the agricultural ministry is gathering the results of public hearings, and at this stage, the regulation can still be amended. The procedure will follow the approval of the Eurasia Economic Commission, the EEU governor body, and finally, the Russian government.
The regulation aims to have rules for the entire production chain, including storage, transportation, sale and disposal. However, negotiating partners have experienced difficulties even agreeing on basic terms, for example, what products must be called feed additives, Kolchanova said.
Evgeniy Lapinsky, head of the livestock and veterinary department of the Russian National Meat Association, agreed that unified standards were the subject of fierce debates between the member states. For example, he said, Belarus sought strict standards on cadmium content in the products that feed companies occasionally found impossible to meet.