U.S. poultry producers are banned from exporting chicken meat to Russia as they have not provided guarantees on the absence of chlorine in their production, the Russian agricultural regulator said.
Rosselkhoznadzor spokesman Alexei Alekseyenko said in an interview published on Wednesday in Russia”s respected business daily Vedomosti that the U.S. Food Safety and Inspection Service had failed to provide Russia with a list of companies that use chlorine in processing of bird meat in acceptable volumes.
“Poultry producers did not provide guarantees that imported chicken meat will not be treated with chlorine-containing solution, which is prohibited by [Russian] chief sanitary officer Gennady Onishchenko,” Alekseyenko said, adding that Russia”s current stock of chicken meat would only last for a month.
In 2008, Russia”s quotas for poultry meat imports totaled around 1.2 million metric tons, including 870,000 tons from the United States. Earlier in the month Russia announced it had reduced its quota for poultry meat imports in 2009 from the United States and other countries by 300,000 metric tons.
Russia banned poultry imports from 19 U.S. producers on September 1, citing their failure to meet sanitary standards. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said the ban was not political.
