Banned U.S. Poultry Suppliers Named in Russia

MOSCOW — Russia, the biggest market for U.S. poultry exporters, will ban imports from 19 producers in the United States and warned on Friday that another 29 suppliers faced a possible ban on health and safety grounds.

The ban is to take effect Monday and includes three plants belonging to meat giant Tyson Foods, the Federal Service for Sanitary Supervision said, a day after Prime Minister Vladimir Putin first spoke of the measures.

“Joint Russian-U.S. inspections of U.S. poultry processing plants at the end of July and the beginning of August showed a number of inspected plants do not fully observe the agreed standards,” the service said in a statement.

“The inspection showed that many plants have not taken steps to eliminate faults discovered by previous inspections.”

The United States last year exported nearly $1 billion worth of poultry, mainly frozen chicken leg quarters, and other meat products to Russia. The ban comes as Moscow prepares separate cuts to existing meat import quotas to help domestic suppliers.

The watchdog said its inspectors had not been allowed to visit some poultry farms and had not received results of an investigation into a possible excess of arsenic in some U.S. poultry.

Source: St. Petersburg Times