Russian April poultry imports down US$48.2 against 2009

Russia imported US$33.1 million worth of poultry in April, down from US$81.3 million in April 2009, but up 24.4% from March this year.

The fall in imports on the year is mostly due to the fact that Russia currently isn't importing poultry from the US, as it is treated with chlorine, which is against Russian health regulations.

The stark impact of Russia's ban on chlorinated chicken meat is shown in latest data, in which first-quarter imports from the US completely dried up in March. A year earlier, US was shipping over 40,000 tonnes of frozen cuts a month to Russia.

This has gone a long way towards helping Russia achieve its self-sufficiency goal; although reconciliation between the two trading nations is supposed to be imminent. Russia has also been busy cutting back on supplies from the EU. Only Brazil is holding year-earlier volumes in this market but it has lost out in Russia's general cutback of whole frozen birds.