June 5, 2010

Lithuania's poultry growers eye Russian market

Poultry farmers in Lithuania intend to enter Russia's market after the failure of Moscow's talks with the US on poultry imports, according to reports on Friday (Jun 4).

Moscow has announced that 150,000 tonnes of poultry will be purchased from other countries, instead of the US, and Lithuania's poultry growers are also eager to get some slice of that market.

"We did not export to Russia since the market was almost entirely occupied by local growers and the Americans. Now there will be a niche and our poultry growers will try to get in there," said Vytautas Tevelis, president of Lithuanian Poultry Association.

Poultry output rose by 5% in Lithuania in January-April on-year, according to the association.

Some 600,000 tonnes of poultry had to be shipped to Russia from the US this year, i.e. 77% of all poultry imports and about 20% of annual poultry consumption in that country. In 2009 poultry imports from the US totalled 750,000 tonnes.