Source:  Tom Johnston, MEATINGPLACE.COM, 2/4/10

The impacts of Russia's ban on poultry treated with chlorine are not limited to U.S. chicken producers, livestock analysts Steve Meyer and Len Steiner noted in their Daily Livestock Report posted Wednesday.

The ban effectively bans all exports of U.S. poultry to Russia, indicating that broiler product is backing up, the analysts said. If that happens, pork prices will be strained.

The most vulnerable product, the analysts said, are pork loins, which compete directly with chicken breast meat in the retail case.

"If chicken products back up and overall chicken prices plummet, we would expect a wave of chicken features. This would make pork loin prices less competitive at the retail level," Altin Kalo, a commodity analyst with Steiner Consulting, told Meatingplace. "The pork industry has found it increasingly difficult in recent years to put more money on pork loin prices and…this is in part due to the very low chicken breast meat prices at retail."

In their report, Meyer and Steiner said pork loin values thus far have held up well and are about 9 percent higher than they were a year ago.

"Even at current levels, pork loins still present value for retailers but that equation could change should we see a collapse in the broiler market," they said.

For more stories, go to www.meatingplace.com.