Danish pig will lose this year with the introduction of Russia's ban on food imports from EU countries 4 billion Danish kroner (about $680 million).

Loss will be twice the initial estimate, according to today's edition of "Jyllands-lean" with reference to the sectoral Council on agriculture and food.

The Council asked the European Union to call for help for the private storage of unsold pork, closing part of the pig farms and the sale of meat in the markets of developing countries.

The industry is attempting to shift to the markets of South America and Asia, but sales on these continents will not cover losses of farmers due to the Russian sanctions, says its Director, Eric Larsen.

"Our industry has become a pawn in a big political game, " he said in an interview with Larsen. - Falling prices caused by the conflict between Russia and the European Union, led to the loss of farms. This is an exceptional situation and need urgent help to relieve pressure from the markets".

In the last months of the purchase price in Danish pork fell sharply, the newspaper notes. Now farmers are 9,4 CZK ($1,6) per kilogram of meat compared with 11.9 crowns ($2,03) a year ago. Meanwhile, consumers are happy to reduce the cost of popular Danish pork.

According to the statistics, the export of Danish pork in Russia last year amounted to 130849 tons more than $ 2 billion kroons. Russia is the fifth buyer Danish pork on the volume of purchased meat.

Russia banned the import of pork from the EU in January 2014 due to outbreaks of African swine fever in the EU. Later with the introduction of the response of the Russian government on international sanctions under the ban came and finished products.