Lithuania, which lost the Russian market almost two years ago, has exported its first shipment of meat products to the United States, Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevicius said on April 12th, cites LETA/BNS.

"Meat product exports to the United States, to New York, finally got underway a week or two ago and these products will be supplied continuously," he said on LRT Radio.

Jonas Milius, director of the State Food and Veterinary Service, confirmed that the products had been exported to the US by Biovela Group.

Biovela Group CEO Audrius Kantauskas could not be reached by BNS for comment on Tuesday morning.

Kantauskas told BNS last month that they expected to sign a contract with US suppliers in April and to immediately send the first shipment of around 20 tons of fresh chilled beef, about 10 tons of canned beef and trial quantities of various other beef products.

He said that the company would also want to supply pork products to the US, but the export of these products had been hindered by swine fever.

The following Lithuanian companies last November received authorizations to export meat to the US: Utenos Mesa, Biovela, Krekenavos Mesa, Krekenavos Agrofirma, Pajurio Mesine, Agrovet, Grimeda and Klaipedos Mesine.