March 18, 2009

Ukraine has begun an anti-dumping inquiry against the US and Brazil in view of producers' report of unreasonable cheap poultry imports, an official gazette said Tuesday (Mar 17).

The procedure, initiated by six Ukrainian poultry producers, concerned imports of various chicken products, said government newspaper Uryadoviy Kurier.

The producers said chicken was sold in Ukraine at prices half of those quoted in the US and Brazil. US imports increased 75.16 percent from 2005 to 2007, while Brazilian imports surged by more than six times, reducing the viability of domestic poultry production.

Ukraine has sharply boosted its poultry meat production in recent years, with sales rising to 817,500 tonnes in 2008 from 684,900 a year ago. Poultry herd also rose 4.3 percent on-year to 176.6 million as of January 1, 2009.

Ukraine has imported 160,000 tonnes of poultry from January to August 2008, most of which came from the US, according to analysts.