Mexico to Lift Ban on Pennsylvania Poultry Imports - PENNSYLVANIA - Pennsylvania Governor Edward G. Rendell said today that the state's poultry farmers will once again be allowed to export poultry products to Mexico. The Mexican government has agreed to lift the year-and-a-half ban on imports of Pennsylvania poultry to Mexico by Oct. 4. The decision was announced at a recent meeting between U.S. and Mexican officials to address poultry trade.

In commenting on the decision, Governor Rendell said, "Lifting this ban is good news for Pennsylvania's poultry farmers. Our farmers will now have access to this valuable export market, meaning millions of dollars in additional sales of Pennsylvania products.

"I want to thank Mexican President Vicente Fox on his government's decision to reopen its market to our poultry products," said Governor Rendell. "After months of discussions and efforts by many parties, we are pleased this decision was reached.

"As a trading partner, Pennsylvania has enjoyed mutually beneficial economic relations with Mexico for many years, and we look forward to resuming and expanding poultry exports to one of our top partners." "Mexico is a large market for us," said Rob Van Naarden, CEO and president of Empire Kosher. "This is great news for Pennsylvania producers, and I congratulate the Governor for his leadership on this issue."

Live and raw poultry products from Pennsylvania have been restricted from being exported to Mexico since February 2004, when an incident of non-H5/H7 avian influenza (AI) occurred in the commonwealth. This occurrence was different from the avian influenza currently causing human illness in Asia. Non-H5/H7 avian influenza does not represent a threat to human health. Pennsylvania has world-class safety standards regarding poultry products.

Since then, state officials have worked closely with the U.S. Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, U.S. Food Safety Inspection Service, and other officials to demonstrate the safety of Pennsylvania's poultry operations to regulators at the Mexican Department of Agriculture.

Pennsylvania is a leader in avian influenza testing and routinely performs AI tests on more than 200,000 samples per year. As a result of continued monitoring, no cases of H5 or H7 AI have occurred in Pennsylvania since 2001. Pennsylvania poultry is exported to many nations including Singapore, Canada and the European Union.

Industry sources estimate that Mexico is a multi-million-dollar market for Pennsylvania poultry products.

Source: PRNewswire - 23rd September 2005