Post by psychecc on Aug 31, 2008 9:35:55 GMT -6
This post is identical to the one I just posted in the Russia/Georgia thread. Hope I'm not breaking any rules, posting it twice. It's a good article and fits best here but seemed related to that as well.
I suspect the timing of this reduction of chicken imports is related to the U.S. response to the current Georgia/Russia conflict. It seems entirely appropriate to me.
Tyson Foods has a horrible record of treating both workers and chickens poorly, resulting in sick and dead workers (A few years back, they couldn't get out a chained door during a fire.) and in contaminated chickens. I never buy Tyson; I don't know why the Russians should either.
The article speaks of Russia's use of tariffs to control chicken imports and reduce competition with domestic suppliers. WOW! You mean they take care of their own people first? What a concept!
Meanwhile the CEO of Tyson was on CNBC within the last month talking of the need to cut supply of chicken here in his own country in order to raise prices. In a time of hefty food inflation, that seems pretty much unamerican to me. Link to full article follows.
Russia Takes Aim at US Chickens
By Reuters
| 29 Aug 2008 | 07:38 AM ET
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 face a possible ban on health and safety grounds.
The ban will take effect from Sept. 1 and includes two plants belonging to U.S. meat giant Tyson Foods , Russia's animal and plant health watchdog 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 watchdog, Rosselkhoznadzor, 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.
Rosselkhoznadzor said its inspectors had not been allowed to visit some poultry farms and had not received results of a probe into a possible excess of arsenic in some U.S. poultry supplied to Russia. It said it wanted to receive these results within one month.
"A timely reception of this information by Rosselkhoznadzor will prevent the imposition of restrictions on poultry imports to Russia for 22 plants belonging to Tyson Foods, four plants of Peco Foods and three plants of the Equity Group," it said.
Dangerous Bacteria
Agriculture Minister Alexei Gordeyev, in a separate statement, said inspectors had more than once found an excess of arsenic, salmonella, E.coli and other dangerous bacteria in shipments of U.S. poultry to Russia.
....
"In the last seven years, poultry meat output has been rising annually by 15 percent," Gordeyev said. He said Russia planned to raise poultry meat output by more than 300,000 tonnes this year from the 1.9 million tonnes produced in 2007.
The minister said poultry meat and pork import quotas should also be cut by hundreds of thousands of tonnes. "It is time to change the quota regime and to cut imports, which, lamentably, have been rising in the last few years."
Russia regulates imports of poultry and red meat by tariff quotas, which have been fixed for 2005-2009. The United States has the largest share of the poultry quotas. ....
In March 2002, Russia banned all U.S. poultry for about one month, citing safety concerns such as salmonella contamination....
www.cnbc.com/id/26453291/
I suspect the timing of this reduction of chicken imports is related to the U.S. response to the current Georgia/Russia conflict. It seems entirely appropriate to me.
Tyson Foods has a horrible record of treating both workers and chickens poorly, resulting in sick and dead workers (A few years back, they couldn't get out a chained door during a fire.) and in contaminated chickens. I never buy Tyson; I don't know why the Russians should either.
The article speaks of Russia's use of tariffs to control chicken imports and reduce competition with domestic suppliers. WOW! You mean they take care of their own people first? What a concept!
Meanwhile the CEO of Tyson was on CNBC within the last month talking of the need to cut supply of chicken here in his own country in order to raise prices. In a time of hefty food inflation, that seems pretty much unamerican to me. Link to full article follows.
Russia Takes Aim at US Chickens
By Reuters
| 29 Aug 2008 | 07:38 AM ET
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 face a possible ban on health and safety grounds.
The ban will take effect from Sept. 1 and includes two plants belonging to U.S. meat giant Tyson Foods , Russia's animal and plant health watchdog 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 watchdog, Rosselkhoznadzor, 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.
Rosselkhoznadzor said its inspectors had not been allowed to visit some poultry farms and had not received results of a probe into a possible excess of arsenic in some U.S. poultry supplied to Russia. It said it wanted to receive these results within one month.
"A timely reception of this information by Rosselkhoznadzor will prevent the imposition of restrictions on poultry imports to Russia for 22 plants belonging to Tyson Foods, four plants of Peco Foods and three plants of the Equity Group," it said.
Dangerous Bacteria
Agriculture Minister Alexei Gordeyev, in a separate statement, said inspectors had more than once found an excess of arsenic, salmonella, E.coli and other dangerous bacteria in shipments of U.S. poultry to Russia.
....
"In the last seven years, poultry meat output has been rising annually by 15 percent," Gordeyev said. He said Russia planned to raise poultry meat output by more than 300,000 tonnes this year from the 1.9 million tonnes produced in 2007.
The minister said poultry meat and pork import quotas should also be cut by hundreds of thousands of tonnes. "It is time to change the quota regime and to cut imports, which, lamentably, have been rising in the last few years."
Russia regulates imports of poultry and red meat by tariff quotas, which have been fixed for 2005-2009. The United States has the largest share of the poultry quotas. ....
In March 2002, Russia banned all U.S. poultry for about one month, citing safety concerns such as salmonella contamination....
www.cnbc.com/id/26453291/