23.12.2010

Russia thought twice and decided not to ban the imports of frozen chicken. Still, the chilled meat is expected to get prioritized on the domestic market. January 1, 2011 was expected to stop the imports of frozen poultry to the Russian market as earlier inititated by Russian Chief Sanitary Inspector, Gennady Onischenko. According to him, modern technologies allow transportation of the meat in chilled (not deep-frozen) condition not to mention the fact that chilled meat is more healthy for consumers. The ban has been postponed. As for the total ban, says Onischenko, we postponed it for our external market, though we will keep increasing the production volumes of chilled meat at our domestic market. About 80% of the imported frozen chicken comes to Russia from the US.
U.S. poultry has traditionally accounted for almost 80% of chicken imports in Russia with this year's quota standing at 600,000 tons.