Russia to slash poultry imports by another 100,000 tonnes in 2009

According to The Moscow Times, Russia will cut poultry import from US by another 100,000 tonnes in 2009, making a total cut of 300,000 tonnes.

Russia's First Deputy Prime Ministor Viktor Zubkov stated that they had already reached an agreement with American producers on cutting quotas by 200,000 tonnes, giving Russian producers the ability to increase production by approximately the same amount in 2009.

However, the state considers that insufficient.

The Russian Agriculture Ministry originally made the decision to limit its poultry import quotas in September. At that time, the announced cut of 200,000 tons equalled 17 percent of the country's import volume.

A majority of Russia's poultry imports come directly from the US. In 2008, the US provided 870,000 tonnes of poultry to Russia, supplying most of the country's then 1.2 million tonnes quota.