MOSCOW (Bloomberg) — Russia is halting pork shipments from six more US plants, including a Swift & Co. facility owned by JBS SA, after meat from the processors didn't pass Russian import requirements.

Russia, the fourth-largest buyer of US pork, won't accept shipments from the plants after December 20, the US Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service said yesterday in an e-mailed statement. Russia has stopped imports from 12 US pork plants in the past two weeks, for a total of 16 facilities suspended in 2008, said Amanda Eamich, a spokeswoman for FSIS. "The official letter to us was simply that they didn't comply to Russian requirements," Eamich said in a telephone interview from Washington. "We're going to continue communication with them, of course. We haven't received any additional information."

On December 2, the USDA said that Russia would halt imports from six other plants, including one meatpacking facility owned by Smithfield Foods Inc., the world's largest pork processor. Smithfield spokesman Jerry Hostetter called the suspension "more political than scientific" in an interview last week.