November 9, 2010

US poultry exporters say Russian frozen poultry ban unfeasible

Sanderson Farms, a major American poultry producer, has accused Russia of effectively locking chicken out of parts of the Russian market through its proposed ban on imports and sales of deep-frozen poultry.

Russia's Chief Sanitary Inspector, Gennady Onishchenko, had proposed a new ban from January 1 as the country looks to prohibit the sale and processing of deep-frozen poultry meat - both domestic and imported.

According to Onishchenko, the country is pursuing the ban because Russian chicken meat loses a significant amount of its nutritional value when frozen, according to research conducted in the country.

The USDA has criticised Onishchenko statement, saying that it has no scientific basis or food safety rationale.

Sanderson Farms said that the ban was not feasible, and would damage trade both internationally and domestically. Its CFO Mike Cockrell said that chilled poultry in Russia has a five-day shelf life, so the ban on frozen chicken would deny parts of Russia access to poultry.

"Russia is a very big country, and with a shelf life of only five days, chilled poultry wouldn't be able to be shipped to its outer parts," he said. "It's just not feasible to ship domestically produced poultry all across Russia."