March 2, 2010

US representatives arrive in Moscow for poultry talks

The US agricultural delegation arrived in Moscow on Monday (Mar 1) to resume talks on poultry imports, which have been suspended since the beginning of the year.

Russia's Federal Consumer Protection Service was to resume talks with the delegation and work toward a resumption of imports, service head Gennady Onishchenko said.

"We have carried out comparative analysis of the disinfectants used in the US and Russia, and we came to a conclusion that we have a wide field to move forward in the forthcoming negotiations," he said.

Agriculture Minister Yelena Skrynnik said last month that US poultry suppliers might revamp their poultry processing methods to meet Russian standards. First Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov said last month that Russia would consider giving US suppliers a transition period to meet the standards if they asked for one.

Imports were frozen at the beginning of the year after long-planned regulations went into effect that forbid the import of poultry treated with chlorine -- a production method used by many US producers. The Federal Consumer Protection Service signed the measure in June 2008 but later pushed back the measure's starting date to January 1, 2010.

The US supplied 750,000 tonnes of poultry last year -- or 20% of the market -- and was scheduled to supply an additional 600,000 tonnes in 2010.