Source: MEATINGPLACE, 9/27/13

The recent decision by USDA to allow China to export chicken food products to the United States is unlikely to change the fact that a “miniscule amount of chicken” consumed here is imported, the National Chicken Council said.

Currently, Canada, Chile, France, Israel and South Korea are all approved to export some type of chicken products to the United States, but imports from these countries represent less than a fraction of one percent of the chicken eaten here, NCC spokesman Tom Super said in a statement emailed to Meatingplace.

“Ninety-nine percent of the chicken we consume here is hatched, raised and processed in the U.S. We don't expect that to change any time soon – there’s no shortage of chicken here,” Super said.

To export to the United States, a Chinese company would have to purchase frozen U.S. chicken, pay to ship it 7,000 miles, unload it, transport it to a processing plant, unpack it, cut it up, process and cook it, freeze it, repack it, transport it back to a port, then ship it another 7,000 miles, Super said.

“I don’t know how anyone could make a profit doing that,” he said.

USDA recently reaffirmed a 2006 food safety inspection system equivalency standard granting four Chinese poultry processors the ability to ship processed meat into American markets. The decision prompted questions from U.S. senators about how the safety of those products would be ensured.
Super said any country that can meet USDA’s stringent safety standards is welcome to compete in the marketplace, noting free trade is a two-way street. “Our industry is confident in its ability to compete effectively and efficiently here and on a global scale,” Super said.

Sanderson Farms Chief Financial Officer Mike Cockrell said his company doesn’t sell the type of chicken products in question but is not opposed to opening the U.S. market to those imports. “We actually welcome the free trade principles that allowing that represents,” Cockrell told Meatingplace.

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