May 30, 2007

US poultry export to Russia expected to fall 20 percent in 2007

As Russia increasingly modernizes and expands its poultry industry, the US expects poultry supplies to Russia would suffer a 10-20 percent drop to 599,000 tonnes to 674,000 tonnes in 2007.

The rise in prices of chickens is another factor in reducing supplies to Russia. Due to the escalating costs of corn feed which has pushed up chicken prices in the US, US chicken are now dearer than they were last year.

Prices of chicken parts have grown by 80-90 percent from prices last year, when bird flu fears and overproduction forced producer to lower prices drastically.

The vacuum left by US poultry producers would likely be filled by Russian producers, whose broiler meat production capacity is expected to grow by 70 percent in the next three years.