Russia will replace salo, a traditional Ukrainian delicacy made of cured pork fat, with local produce as well as imports from Brazil, Chile and China if Ukraine implements the economic part of its association agreement with the EU, Russia's agriculture minister said Monday.
Ukrainian pork amounts to only 4 percent of all the pork imported by Russia, Agriculture Minister Alexander Tkachyov told Rossiiskaya Gazeta government newspaper in an interview published Monday.
“Such volumes can easily be replaced by local producers, as well as other countries, for example Brazil, China and Chile,” he said. Amid Russia's ban on many food imports from countries that sanctioned it over the Ukraine crisis, domestic producers increased their pork output by 3.5 percent in the first half of this year, he added.
