The Russian Meat Union said Wednesday that Russia might import up to 30,000 tons of pork meat sausage ingredients per month until the end of the year, and was looking to the United States as a likely supplier.

The Agriculture Ministry was unable to confirm or deny the existence of a significant pork meat deficit.

"We expect no supplies of domestic meat, and we need at least 30,000 tons of pork per month," said Viktor Yatskin, the chairman of the information committee of the union.

"We need cheap pork for sausage products, mainly trimmings. I believe that current prices in the United States make U.S. pork competitive, even taking into account the shipping costs."

Russia used to import large quantities of pork from the European Union, which paid substantial export subsidies to ship its pork surplus to Russia and other East European countries.

But in August the EU removed all its pork export subsidies due to a fall in output, which resulted in higher European pork prices.