April 28, 2006

 

Russia cancels poultry import license on regulatory violations

 

 

Russia's Agriculture Ministry said Thursday (Apr 27) it has cancelled all import licenses for poultry because of violations of veterinary regulations, but the country's top agriculture official indicated the move was a temporary procedural matter.

 

The ministry said in statement it had withdrawn all permission for imports of poultry and poultry products as of Thursday because of violations of import regulations. The statement did not specify a clear timeframe for the shutdown.

 

Agriculture Minister Alexei Gordeyev, however, described the step as a temporary, technical issue requiring import licenses to be replaced within two weeks with a new type of license.

 

He said that poultry imports would not be reduced in the meantime, the Interfax news agency reported.

 

"This is a technical issue, and I hope everything will be done quickly, within 10 or 14 days," Gordeyev was quoted as saying by Interfax. "We have not stopped issuing licences, we are simply replacing old documents with new ones."

 

If the action were to stop imports for any length of time, it could have a big impact on foreign poultry suppliers, which account for 47 percent of the Russian market, according to 2004 figures from the US Egg and Poultry Council. Russia is the largest market for US poultry, which provides 73 percent of all imports or some 34 percent of all poultry consumed here.

 

The ministry statement cited instances of products offloaded without import permission; discrepancies between shipments and accompanying documents; the discovery of fake products; failure to observe regulations on storing different kinds of raw meat in a single enterprise; and attempts to import shipments with counterfeit documents from the ministry's inspector's office. It did not mention which countries were involved in the alleged violations.

 

The ministry's announcement followed a Russian ban on Georgian and Moldovan wines, which many allege is motivated more by politics than economics.

 

There were some indications that the poultry ban, too, could have some political and economic motivation.

 

The announcement came a week after about 300 members of the Russian poultry producers' union protested outside the Trade and Economic Ministry in Moscow to demand that poultry imports be limited. They alleged that imports were growing continually while domestic production was falling, according to the RIA Novosti news agency.

 

Earlier this month, Gordeyev announced that poultry importers would cut their purchases by about 30 percent to help domestic producers weather consumer worries over bird flu.

 

Russia's abrupt move caught US officials by surprise. "All of this was done without any prior notice or consultation," US Agriculture Department spokesman Ed Loyd said.

 

The ban could push US sales down by 5 percent, according to analysis by JP Morgan Securities. That is on top of a 12 percent sales drop in recent months from the impact of bird flu on overseas consumption.

 

Russia accounts for about 30 percent of US poultry sold abroad. Leg quarters--the drumstick, thigh and part of the back--made up most of the 1.7 billion pounds Russia purchased from the US last year.