International Egg and Poultry Review
By the USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service - This is a weekly report looking at international developments concerning the poultry industry, this week looking at Russia.
Russia Cancels Import Permits
Russia revoked all 2006 import permits for poultry and poultry products
effective April 27, due to continued cases of nonobservance of veterinary
legislation, according to the Russian Agriculture Ministry’s press service.
Product departing seaports before May 8 will be admitted.
Russia expressed a growing frustration with fraudulent importing
procedures. The Federal Service for the Veterinary and Phytosanitary
Supervision (Rosselkhoznador) complained of shipments off-loaded
without import licenses, inconsistency between the documentation and
the consignments, attempts to import poultry meat under counterfeit
permits, and nonobservance of the conditions for separate storage of
different kinds of raw meat in a single enterprise.
The Russian Minister of Agriculture said the renewal of old permits will
not take more than two weeks and new certificates will be issued free
of charge. Rosselkhoznador will institute a simplified procedure to
issue new permits.
Russia's Domestic Poultry Industry Woes
Late 2005 and early 2006 outbreaks of avian influenza in a number of
Russia's southern regions led to a significant drop in demand for poultry
meat in the infected areas. According to some analysts, poultry
consumption patterns did not change significantly in the big cities
located far away from the infected regions. Other analysts claim that on
average, demand for poultry in Russia has decreased by 10 - 15%
during the last three months alone. A number of Russian poultry plant
managers announced that they began lowering offer prices by 10% in
late January 2006 due to the decline in poultry consumption.
Prompted by losses, in March the Russian Poultry Farmers Union
requested a cut in import quotas for 2006 by at least 30%.
The Russian Poultry Union sponsored a public rally against poultry
meat imports on April 19 in Moscow. The rally drew an audience of
about 300, many of them employees of poultry growout and processing
operations who were bused in the event. Speakers complaints included:
the inaction on the part of the Ministry of Economic Development and
Trade (MEDT) will cause many Russians to lose jobs; there are large
stocks of unsold domestic poultry meat at all poultry plants in Russia;
U.S. and European food safety authorities care mostly about the
cleanliness of work spaces at poultry processing facilities and not the
wholesomeness of the product itself.
The group complained that illegal imports of chicken through the Special
Economic Zone in Kalingrad and dumping by importers is leading to
overstocking of unsold products and a reduction in wholesale prices
by 25%.
Russia’s Federal Customs Service Hikes Minimal Import Prices
The Russian Federal Customs Service recently announced an increase
in the minimal declared customs value on meats. The minimum price
of beef will increase 200%, chilled pork carcasses 140%, and frozen
pork 100%. Changes for poultry meat range from slightly lower to sharply
higher.
To view the full report, including tables please click here
Source: USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service - 2nd May 2006