Russia and the United States ended their two-day talks on poultry supplies, held behind closed doors, on Thursday. They have coordinated their stands but have not reached an agreement.
Analysts say the outlook is positive as the Americans can easily change their technology to suit the new food safety regulations adopted in Russia. Meanwhile, poultry suppliers are using the situation to raise prices.
On January 1, 2010, the Russian consumer authority Rospotrebnadzor banned chicken imports from the Untied States because the chlorine solution used in meat processing exceeds the new Russian norm, 0.5 milligram per liter of water, which came into force this year.
Russian health officials declared the chlorine bath that American companies use to disinfect chickens after slaughter unsafe, and banned the procedure in 2008.
Similar regulations have long been applied in the European Union, and the Russian government says it had informed suppliers about the change in advance and that the bulk of Russian suppliers have adjusted their technology.
Unlike in the European Union, American chicken meat is washed with a 20-50 mg/L chlorine solution. The U.S. poultry suppliers either had no time or were unwilling to adjust their procedure to the new Russian regulations.
Unfortunately, this situation could have unpleasant consequences for both U.S. producers and Russian consumers.
The Americans could end up with a substantial backlog of poultry meat. Last year, they supplied 750,000 tons of chicken to Russia, which has cut their quota to 600,000 tons this year.
Russian producers currently satisfy approximately 75% of the market demand, and the country imports the remaining 25%. Of that amount, some 80% is imported from the United States, the world's largest poultry producer and exporter, which puts the U.S. share of the Russian poultry market at as much as 20%.
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