December 24, 2010

Russia to allow frozen poultry imports in 2011

Russia's consumer rights watchdog will allow frozen chicken meat imports from the start of the year, after thinking again on the issue, its head Gennady Onishchenko said on Thursday (Dec 23).

"As for a total ban, we have postponed it for the foreign market, and we will continue increasing chilled meat turnover on the internal market," Onishchenko said.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said in October that Russia could do without poultry imports from 2011.

In November, Onishchenko said poultry freezing was an outdated and crude technology, which led to a loss of many of the useful qualities of meat. He also praised the inert gas technology, which, he said, allowed storage of poultry for up to 120 days.

But the National Meat Association said at the time that a technology for chilling poultry in inert gas did not exist, while the intention to ban freezing raised the question of whether Russia intended to export meat, as it could not be exported chilled.

Onishchenko said on Thursday (Dec 23) that in negotiations with the EU, Russia "had managed to win 400,000 tonnes in the deli segment". He has said that Russia will prohibit making deli food from frozen poultry.

US poultry has traditionally accounted for almost 80% of chicken imports in Russia with this year's quota standing at 600,000 tonnes. But in January, Russia chagned its hygiene requirements, prohibiting processing of poultry with chlorine with a higher concentration than in drinking water. The bulk of imports was banned because the chlorine concentration was higher than the new norms. Poultry supplies were renewed in September 2010.