October 20, 2010

Russia may halt imports of poultry meat from 2011

Russia, which until recently was the largest export market for US chicken, may not need to import poultry meat in 2011 and beyond, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday (Oct 20).

"I think that next year and in the following years we basically can do without the imports," Putin said. "More so, because quite often our sanitary authorities have doubts about the production, transportation, and storage of the products," he said.

In September, Russia's top meat producer Cherkizovo said the country could become self-sufficient in poultry meat and pork before 2013, the target set by the Agriculture Ministry.

Russia was the largest importer of US chicken before it put a ban in place in January. Russian officials were concerned about a chlorine rinse used in US processing plants to kill pathogens. The chlorine is capable of causing food poisoning.

Last month Moscow allowed all but one of the 26 US poultry slaughter and processing plants to again poultry again to Russia.

The US shipped 733,000 tonnes of poultry meat to Russia worth US$752 million in 2009. The US quota for 2010 was set at 600,000 tonnes, but Russia has allowed other suppliers to use a quarter of it.

Putin said on Tuesday (Oct 15) that imports from the US had fallen to 300,000 tonnes this year.