Agriculture, Estonia, Legislation, Markets and Companies

The weekly tender announced by Maag Konservitoostus was won by an offer of HKScan Estonia on the basis of the lowest price. The amount of meat to be supplied corresponds to the canning factory's 27 ton capacity and the estimated per unit price of canned pork produced from this meat inclusive of VAT will be 1.11 euros, a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Rural Affairs said.

HKScan Estonia won the tender also last week. The per unit price together with VAT then came to 1.06 euros. The week before that, the winning supplier was Atria whose per unit price was higher at 1.19 euros.

Minister of Rural Affairs Urmas Kruuse has been highly critical of the participation of HKScan in the tender to supply the pigmeat, finding that a company which has described the production of canned pork as lacking sense and being inadequate as a measure to support pig farmers should not itself place an offer in the tender.

The government decided on Oct. 29 to allocate 1.78 million euros to the state operation stockpile for the purchase of canned pork. Plans are for the preserves to be kept as part of the stockpile until the end of 2016, after which they can be sold, handed over to the defense forces or distributed to disadvantaged categories of residents via the social welfare system.

The meat for making the preserves comes from healthy pigs in the third or protection zone for African swine fever (ASF) subjected to veterinary checks prior to slaughter to rule out the presence of ASF.