Russia slams US poultry producers over standards

 

 

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin criticised US poultry producers Thursday (Jan 14), demanding they comply with new rules that toughen Russia's standards for imported chicken, while Russian consumers may need to pay more for poultry meat due to tighter supplies. 

 

Putin said some of Russia's trade partners, including companies in the US, are not yet ready to comply with Russian standards. He said Russia will source poultry supplies from other countries if certain foreign suppliers do not want, or are not ready to meet Russian safety standards.

 

His comments came after new rules took effect in Russia January 1, slashing the allowable chlorine limit on imported poultry to 50 milligrams per kg from 200 milligrams. This essentially bans poultry imports from the US, where chlorination is a common procedure used by US producers to disinfect chickens. The new rules have been criticised in the US but Putin denied they were politically motivated. 

 

The European Union has banned the import of US chicken since the late 1990s because of the chlorinated water treatment, even though US officials insist the procedure is safe. This dispute has become a major thorn in US-EU trade relations, and the US has been seeking WTO action against the EU.

 

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov said imports of US chicken could be stopped as of January 19 in connection with the chlorine issue, the Interfax news agency reported.

 

Russia is the top export market for US poultry producers, who lobbied hard against the new rules.

 

But Russian poultry prices have risen as much as 20% since US poultry imports were banned January 1, raising concerns among domestic producers they would not be able to meet demand.

 

Wholesale prices have reached about RUB70 (US$2.38) per kilogramme, from about RUB58 (US$1.97) at the end of December, said Yevgeny Kogan, chairman of the Food Trade Group, which supplies meat and produce to supermarkets.

 

Kogan said the price increase is not good as poultry used to be the cheapest protein in Russia, consumed mostly by low-income individuals. As a result, any price increase could be harmful to sales volumes, he said.

 

Russia consumed about 3.5 million tonnes of poultry in 2009, about 900,000 of which was imported, mostly from the US, according to the Association of Russian Poultry Market Operators.

 

The US may end up supplying nothing this year because of the ban, said Andrei Teriokhin, the group's head.

 

US food officials will fly to Moscow next week to discuss the ban.