U.S. Squawks at Russian Threat to End Chicken Imports

Russia’s threat to quit importing U.S. poultry because of health concerns is a boon to chicken eaters in the United States, where increased supplies of dark meat are causing a drop in prices.

But the cutoff would be a major blow to the U.S. poultry industry, which shipped more than $700 million worth of chickens to Russia last year, making it the largest market for U.S. birds.

The issue needs to be resolved quickly “to prevent a dramatic drop in dark meat and whole bird prices in the United States,” North Carolina Agriculture Commissioner Jim Graham said Thursday.

“We are already seeing a decline in dark-meat chicken prices in North Carolina due to this threat and anticipate even greater declines if this block becomes reality,” Graham said.

The emphasis on dark meat reflects the difference in American and Russian eating habits: Americans buy more white meat and the Russians buy more dark meat.

“There’s not any contingency plans you can make. We can’t grow chickens that don’t have legs,” said Archie Schaffer, spokesman for Arkansas-based Tyson Foods Inc., the nation’s largest poultry producer.

Industry executives dismissed the notion of a health problem.

“We sell products to 57 other countries. These are concerns that nobody else in the world has raised,” Schaffer said.

Russia has given 30 days’ notice that it will stop importing chicken if its complaints regarding the health of the flocks and of substandard sanitary conditions are not addressed, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman told reporters this week. “It’s kind of out of the blue,” he said.

Although some shipments are still being made, no new import permits are being granted, Glickman said. The shipments “basically will stop cold as soon as those exports that are in the pipeline reach their destination.”

The issue could be resolved with inspections by Russian veterinarians, industry executives said. “We will work to resolve all these issues,” the National Broiler Council said in a statement Thursday.