Source:  Tom Johnston, MEATINGPLACE.COM, 11/23/10

A Russian official said today that Russia will cut its poultry import quota for 2011 to 350,000 metric tons, according to the USA Poultry and Egg Export Council (USAPEEC) on news from its Moscow office.

"We have [made] a decision. We have left pork and beef quotas unchanged (472,000 tons and 530,000 tons). As for the poultry quota, which stood at 700,000 tons this year, it will amount to 350,000 tons next year," Russia’s First Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov was quoted as saying.

Zubkov noted that Russia earlier had set the 2011 poultry quota at 600,000 metric tons.
USAPEEC expects final details to be ironed out and likely announced Wednesday at a special Russian government meeting. Among those details, the group said, will likely be quarterly allocations, the method of allocating the 350,000 metric tons. Other details include the mechanism of quota distribution to importers.

The quarterly allocation principle is intended to stabilize the volumes and make import volumes more predictable throughout the year, USAPEEC said.

Washington hasn’t received official notification from Moscow’s Ministry of Economic Development, according to USAPEEC.

Ready to ship
U.S. Ambassador to Russia John Beyrle said today at a press conference in Russia that Washington is ready to supply poultry meat “within the quotas determined by the Russian government,” according to USAPEEC. Outside the context of a quota reduction, Beyrle said the U.S. is ready to supply to Russia 450,000 metric tons of poultry in 2011 and 400,000 metric tons in 2012.

"We understand that Russia is developing its own poultry production, which is normal and logical. However, we know that our product is also having success with Russian consumers," USAPEEC quoted him as saying.

The 2010 quota for the U.S. began at 600,000 metric tons. In mid-summer, while the U.S. was sidelined by Russia’s ban on the use of chlorine, Moscow announced that up to 150,000 metric tons of the U.S. quota could be utilized by other countries. That left the U.S. allocation at 450,000 metric tons. According to USAPEEC, only a portion of this reallocated 150,000 metric tons was utilized. Of the remaining U.S. allocation of 450,000 metric tons, the group said, it's estimated that between 200,000 and 250,000 will actually be shipped by year's end.

While the exact U.S. allocation of a 350,000 metric ton quota for 2011 is not known, BB&T Capital Markets analyst Heather Jones wrote in a note to investors that historically the United States has supplied about 75 percent of the quota, which would translate to about 260,000 metric tons.

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