Russia to ban some U.S. chicken/pork
CHICAGO - Russia, the top export market for U.S. chicken and an important buyer of pork, has banned imports of poultry and pork from 30 U.S. facilities, USDA and meat industry sources said on Thursday.The action followed Russia's inspections of the facilities this summer. The reasons for many of bans were not given, USDA and industry sources said, and the facilities were not identified.
"This is based on the audits that the Russians did," Toby Moore, spokesman for the USA Poultry and Egg Export Council, said of the poultry bans. "We haven't seen anything yet on why."
Shares of some major U.S. meat companies were lower on Thursday in the wake of the news, but one economist said Russia's action should not cause a severe impediment to chicken exports.
The bans involve 17 poultry processing plants, five poultry storage facilities, seven pork plants and one pork storage facility, USDA said. However, eight of the poultry plants were already banned due to salmonella concerns, USDA said.