April 16 2002, 09:45 Vedomosti

US poultry to reemerge on Russian market

Vedomosti reported that Russia resumes poultry imports from US starting from Apr 15th. This move is 5 days behind the scheduled date since it took Russians a long time to thoroughly review all US documentation. In the near term Russian chicken legs imports will drop by a quarter compared to the amounts imported before ban was imposed.

Reopening gates for chicken legs Russian veterinarians complained though that US standards are double standards. The press release of Russian Ministry of Agriculture declared that USA uses two standards for veterinary control of the poultry products quality. One of which strictly regulates meeting all medical requirements on the domestic USA market. Another one is extremely liberal and is used to certify the same commodities going for export particularly to Russia. For this reason Russian Ministry of Agriculture will keep an eye on all future incoming lots. Shall quality deteriorate Russia may place the ban again.

According to Sergei Dankvert, the first deputy of the Minister of Agriculture, despite the lifted ban four states including Virginia, Man, North Caroline and Pennsylvania will be banned for another half a year due to poultry grippe epidemics. Moreover, 14 US plants where salmonella was found remain banned as well.

All this will cut US imports by some 20-25%.