Joint Inspections of US Poultry Plants Scheduled

GLOBAL - Russian and US officials are to inspect together poultry plants in the US processing products for export to Russia.
calendar icon 4 October 2010
clock icon 3 minute read

Russian and US sanitary officials will begin a joint inspection of 33 US companies that want to supply poultry to Russia, the agricultural watchdog, Rosselkhoznadzor, said.

RIA Novosti reports that US poultry accounted for almost 80 per cent of poultry imports to Russia before Moscow introduced new sanitary standards on 1 January that banned the treatment of meat with chloride of a higher concentration than in drinking water.

A long negotiating process between Russia and the United States subsequently began, while Russia was also negotiating poultry supplies with other states, as well as trying to increase domestic production.

In June 2010, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and US President Barack Obama agreed to lift the ban.

Since then, Russia has permitted poultry supplies for 83 out of 87 US plants whose production processes met Russian requirements.

Rosselkhoznadzor spokesman, Alexei Alexeyenko, said the Russian and US veterinary officials would carry out random inspections at 33 out of the 83 companies.

The latest joint inspections at US poultry companies were carried out a year ago, he added.

The US import quota amounts to 600,000 tons in 2010.

Previously, RIA Novosti reported Russia's chief sanitary doctor saying that US poultry delivered to Russia after the two countries agreed on the long-disputed issue of chlorine content is in line with sanitary norms.

Gennady Onishchenko said: "The first batches of poultry meat processed in line with technology conforming to Russian laws have arrived. This is a landmark event in itself.

"This is one of the few cases when the Americans agreed with safety requirements adopted in other countries, in particular, Russia, and rearranged their production," he said.

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