Russians Can Bid Farewell to Bush's Legs

Russia’s Sanitary Inspection Service - Rospotrebnadzor - decreased the limit of chlorine in the solution used for the treatment of poultry – from 200 mg per one cubic meter to 50 mg. The new norms were approved in the middle of 2008, but manufacturers asked for a timeout to get prepared for new rules, The Vedomosti reports.

An official with Russia’s National Meat Association said that most of the nation’s manufacturers reequipped their enterprises to upgrade their production from water to air cooling technique. Now Russian enterprises can produce up to 90 percent of poultry without the use of chlorine-containing substances.

Russia’s largest exporter of poultry – the USA – either could not or did not want to take the required measures to meet the new requirements. The US poultry made approximately 22 percent of the Russian market of poultry and 79 percent of import. About 3.45 million tons of poultry were sold in Russia in 2009 and 0.95 million tons were imported.

In 2010, the USA was supposed to deliver 600,000 tons of poultry to Russia (77 percent of import), but all of that poultry was not allowed for delivery due to new chlorine-regulating norms. US regulations are less strict than Russian as far as chlorine is concerned.

If poultry shipments from the USA to Russia do not resume in the nearest future, the Russian market will experience shortage and price growth, experts say. The capacities of Russian manufacturers are not enough to satisfy the needs of the Russian market. The reserves of imported poultry at Russian warehouses will be enough for 1.5 or two months only.