June 8, 2012

Russia's US poultry imports doubled at record level

The amount of US poultry imports to Russia reached a record high in the first quarter of 2012.

According to data recently released by the United States of America Poultry & Egg Export Council (USAPEEC), in January-March of this year, the US exported 984,900 tonnes of poultry meat (up by 13.9%), worth about US$1.3 billion (an increase of 26.9%), which is an absolute record.

As a result in the first quarter of 2012, Russia ranked second place among the largest buyers of US chicken after Mexico.

Russia was the fastest growing sales market for US, while the US could increase the volume of poultry export largely due to the export shipments to Russia. As previously reported by the Russian Federal Custom Service, in the January-March of this year, Russia imported 78,200 tonnes of poultry meat worth US$121 million. Also among the top-three largest importers of poultry meat to Russia in the first quarter of 2012 were Brazil and France.

According to the vice-president of the International Poultry Development Program (UIPDP), Albert Davleyev, the increase in poultry meat imports in value terms, including from the US, has been presented mostly due to the desire of suppliers to use the allocated quotas. In monetary terms the volumes of import rose due to the rise in world prices. The annual quota for poultry imports to Russia amounts to 350,000 tonnes.