Thursday, April 27, 2006
Russia Bans All Poultry Imports ( bird flu related )
MOSCOW (AP)—Russia has banned all imports of poultry and poultry products in connection with violations of veterinary regulations, the Agriculture Ministry said Thursday.
The ministry said it had withdrawn all permission for imports this year as of Thursday, and that it would institute a simplified procedure for issuing such permission.
It cited instances of products offloaded without import permission; discrepancies between shipments and accompanying documents; the discovery of fake products; failure to observe regulations on storing different kinds of raw meat in a single enterprise; and attempts to import shipments with counterfeit documents from the ministry’s inspector’s office. It did not mention which countries were involved in the alleged violations.
It was unclear how long the ban would be in effect, but it could have a big impact on foreign poultry suppliers, which account for 47 percent of the Russian market, according to 2004 figures from the U.S. Egg and Poultry Council. Russia is the largest market for U.S. poultry, which provides 73 percent of all imports or some 34 percent of all poultry consumed here.