Russian food aid package prompts concern

Date: 12/11/1998

By Myles Neligan

HUMANITARIAN relief experts have voiced concern about the impact of the package of food aid which the Union is putting together to help the people of crisis-torn Russia.

They suspect that a proposal to include large quantities of meat is motivated more by the need to shed surplus EU stocks than by a desire to alleviate Russian suffering.

EU foreign ministers broadly welcomed the European Commission's plans for an aid package which would include 150,000 tonnes of beef and 100,000 tonnes of pigmeat at a meeting this week.

Their official approval will still be required if Moscow makes a formal request for aid, which is expected within the next few days. But few doubt that large-scale intervention will be needed to avert a major human calamity.

“The dimensions of the crisis are potentially enormous,” said Luc Henskens, director of the International Red Cross EU liaison office. “The financial collapse has deprived many people of their resources, and the most vulnerable groups will be facing serious food shortages as winter draws on.”

Humanitarian relief organisations report that unpaid salaries and the erosion of pensions have left many people on the breadline, and say that a carefully targeted package of assistance is urgently needed.

The EU is planning a two-pronged strategy to respond to the crisis.

The European Community Humanitarian Office (ECHO) is liaising closely with relief organisations and its own personnel on the ground, and has initiated discussions between the relevant Commission services with a view to organising an EU relief effort. This would take the traditional form of emergency deliveries of food and medicine.

But the Commission has also proposed the more controversial measure, instigated by a group of EU countries led by France, which was unveiled this week following talks between Union officials and Russian Premier Yevgeny Primakov.

It would involve sending 400 million ecu worth of the Union's excess agricultural production to Russia to meet specific food shortages.

While EU grain stocks are regularly channelled into famine relief, this latest proposal is unusual in that large quantities of meat would be included in the aid package.

Humanitarian relief experts argue that flooding Russia with free pork could destroy the country's large pig farming sector.

To counter these objections, the food would be sold at local market prices, with all revenues going into a special hardship fund. But tight financial controls will be needed if this plan is to work.

Critics have little doubt that the scheme owes its origins as much to the crisis on EU meat markets as it does to any genuine humanitarian impulse. The need to maintain trading links with Russia, especially in view of the US' announcement last week of a rival 540-million-ecu export credit guarantee programme, is another significant factor.

The Commission will not proceed with either option until Moscow makes a formal request for assistance, which has not been forthcoming so far. However, there is speculation that recent reports of a drop in the country's food stocks to levels which would last no more than 20 days will galvanise the Kremlin into action.

“Our government is trying to calculate the exact quantity of stocked food, so as to assess whether or not external assistance is necessary,” said a Russian diplomat.

Asked whether there were any realistic alternatives, he replied: “Only God knows, and he isn't telling.”