Russia has agreed to resume imports of U.S. poultry, thus ending a ban that began last January when Russia stopped accepting U.S. chicken imports due to concerns about U.S. processing techniques.
According to a joint statement by USDA and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative: "Once the Agreement is signed, U.S. producers will be able to resume shipments of poultry to Russia . Under the agreement, the United States will publish information on USDA's website about which disinfectants/pathogen reductions treatments are known to be approved by Russia for use on processing poultry and on food generally. The United States will provide information to Russia on the solutions that companies use on poultry shipped to Russia . In addition, the United States will give Russia an updated list of poultry processing facilities authorized to ship poultry to Russia ."
The deal assures Russia that U.S. chicken exports will not go through a chlorinated water rinse, which is the usual way that poultry plants disinfect processed birds. Instead, U.S. negotiators agreed that three alternative sanitizing compounds will be used: cetylpyridinium chloride, hydrogen peroxide or peroxyacetic acid. It was the chlorinated rinse that caused Russia to ban imports of U.S. chicken.
The United States was a major supplier of chicken — mostly leg quarters — to Russia before the ban. U.S. exporters shipped about $744 million worth of chicken to Russia in 2009, according to statistics maintained by the National Chicken Council.
"I am pleased that after several months of negotiations, we have finally reached a breakthrough which will allow for U.S. poultry exports to resume to this important market," said U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk said.
Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack said that Russia had long been the largest export market for U.S. poultry. He said it was a top priority for the Obama administration to regain access to the Russian market and was pleased the two countries had come to an agreement to reopen the Russian market to U.S. poultry exports.
