Against the backdrop of sanctions. ONF asks the governor of Altai to reconsider the ban on home slaughter

The All-Russian Popular Front (ONF) appealed to the Governor of the Altai Territory, Viktor Tomenko, with a request to reconsider the decision to ban the issuance of veterinary certificates for the yard slaughter of private livestock. The ban came into effect at the end of 2021. However, according to the ONF, in the face of unprecedented sanctions pressure and the closure of export opportunities, the decision must be promptly corrected.

How much have prices risen

The ban on the issuance of veterinary accompanying documents for the meat of livestock slaughtered outside the slaughterhouse came into force on November 11 last year.

Prices for beef from November 15, 2021 to April 1, 2022, according to the latest data from Altaikraistat, increased by 23.7%, for pork - by 6.6%. And that's in less than six months.

There are many reasons for the rise in meat prices, altapress.ru said earlier. However, as Dmitry Khalyavkin, head of the Meat Union of Altai, explained, the ban on backyard slaughter also played a role in this.

The ban did not solve the main problem

According to experts, the ban did not solve the main task - reducing the risk of an epizootic situation. Sergei Voytyuk, head of the regional executive committee of the ONF, wrote about this to the governor.

“On the contrary, the level of veterinary control over food safety has decreased, while corruption risks have objectively increased, which is indirectly confirmed by a whole series of criminal cases against employees of the regional veterinary service,” Voytyuk said.

People want to cancel

The head of the regional executive committee of the ONF notes: many small farms have suffered, the share of private household plots on the market has decreased, and as a result, the cost for the population of the region has increased.

At the same time, ONF and the "Altai Union of Entrepreneurs" continue to receive appeals, including collective ones, from rural residents of the region and businessmen producing meat. As well as from the population that buys products from household plots.

All of them demand lifting the ban or declaring a moratorium. For its part, ONF also proposes to return to the issue.

“In the context of unprecedented sanctions pressure on Russia, the closure of export opportunities, the likely reduction in the risks of the spread of African swine fever, and at the same time the clear need to ensure food security and maintain purchasing power within the country, according to experts, the restrictions introduced in the region should be subject to prompt correction,” - says Sergey Voytyuk.

According to him, the sale of household plots is the main source of income for many households - up to 60% of pork in the Altai Territory is produced in subsidiary farms.

Have a positive experience

Voytyuk believes that the experience of the veterinary service in the Krasnoyarsk Territory could be adopted, where they approached the implementation of the requirements more flexibly than in Altai.

As altapress.ru wrote earlier, home slaughter has not been banned in the Krasnoyarsk Territory - but this is done in the presence of a veterinarian, who then examines the meat in the laboratory, issues accompanying documents and enters information into the Mercury system.

Voytyuk also called for the creation of slaughterhouses in Altai with the involvement of federal co-financing and public-private partnership mechanisms. There are still no slaughterhouses in the krai in at least 20 districts of the krai.

“Such a decision to eliminate excessive veterinary control measures fully fits into the logic of reinforcing measures to support the national economy, which are currently being actively taken by the country's leadership,” said the head of the regional executive committee of the ONF.

Voytyuk called the revision of the decision extremely relevant - both to support small businesses in the countryside and to stabilize prices. An appeal to the governor was sent on April 8, but no response has been received yet.

History of the ban

From November 11, 2021, livestock meat could only be sold in one case: if the animal was slaughtered at a slaughterhouse. The decision was made by the interdepartmental emergency anti-epizootic commission of the Altai Territory. Cattle slaughtered in private backyards are not given veterinary accompanying documents, without which meat cannot be sold. In 2021, the ONF applied to the regional prosecutor’s office with a request to assess the legality of the “lethal ban”. The prosecutor's office considered the decision legal.