Russia Cuts Import of US Poultry to China's Benefit

Russia purchased a lot less of US poultry than China in 2009 for the first time in many years. The USA shipped 336,500 tons of poultry to the Russian market during seven months of the current year. China purchased 374,100 tons.

Photo: Russia Cuts Import of US Poultry to China's Benefit

Russian experts believe that the reduction of Russia’s import of US poultry marked the beginning of a long-standing trend, which emerged as a result of the cut quotas, higher duties on out-quoted poultry and also because of Russia’s developing poultry industry, RBC Daily reports.

In December of 2005, the Russian government set quotas on the import of each sort of meat and poultry. The quota on poultry was raised from 1.13 million tons in 2006 to 1.25 million tons in 2009. The imported poultry was imposed with a 25-percent duty, but not less than 0.2-0.4 euros per 1 kilo. In December of 2008, the government cut the quotas on poultry in 2009 by 300,000 tons - to 952,000.

Russia reduced the import of US poultry during seven months of the current year by 22.7 percent in comparison with the same period of 2008 – to 336,500 tons. China imported 374,100 tons from January to July of this year. As a result, the US Poultry and Egg Export Council (USAPEEC) confirmed that China had become the prime consumer of US poultry.

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