Poultry plants to resume shipping as ban ends

— Poultry processing plants and cold storage warehouses that were approved to ship to Russia at the end of 2009 can start sending chicken to that country immediately, according to industry officials.

Russia, once the largest importer of U.S. chicken, agreed to lift a 5-month-old ban on the meat after talks June 24 between presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev.

Russia essentially barred U.S. chicken in January by slashing the allowable amount of chlorine U.S. producers can use to disinfect the meat.

Toby Moore, communications director for the U.S.A. Poultry and Egg Export Council in Stone Mountain, Ga., said Thursday that companies with plants identified on the United States Department of Agriculture’s acceptable facilities for export to Russia list asof Dec. 31, can start shipping product to Russia as soon as they are cleared.

The Dec. 31, 2009, date is the last day before the chlorine-based ban went into effect.

Plants on that list had to apply to the USDA to be reinstated and had to certify they meet the new standards for export - essentially using one or a combination of three approved disinfectants in place of chlorine, Moore said.

Moore said there were several hundred approved plants on the Dec. 31, 2009, list.

The USDA was to have forwarded the approved list to Russia on Friday.

Tyson Foods Inc. in Springdale has several plants that were on the Dec. 31 list, spokesman Gary Mickelson said in an e-mailed statement Thursday.

“We’re ready to start producing product for our Rus-sian customers and hope to resume shipments soon,” Mickelson wrote.

Tyson Foods said Russia has been a leading poultry export market in the past.

Mickelson said in June that Russia accounted for 10 percent of Tyson’s international chicken sales of $1.6 billion in fiscal 2009, and 18 percent of the $1.6 billion in fiscal 2008.

The company has been establishing new internationalmarkets for some of the product it ships to Russia.

Russia spent about $752 million on U.S. chicken in 2009, U.S. Department of Agriculture data show.

U.S. exports of chicken to Russia plunged 84 percent in the four months that ended April 30, compared with a year earlier, and there were no shipments in March or April, according to the most recent USDA data. The price of U.S. wholesale chicken legs, a major export to Russia, fell 27 percent in the past year.

Perdue Farms Inc., based in Salisbury, Md., and the thirdlargest U.S. poultry company, is still deciding how it will gear up to meet Russia Federation standards, said Luis A. Luna, vice president of corporate communications.

“Export has been an important part of our business and it will continue to be in the future,” Luna said Thursday.

Tyson rival Sanderson Farms of Laurel, Miss., has three plants that are packing leg quarters for shipment to Russia, said Mike Cockrell, the company’s chief financial officer. He said a shipload should be ready to leave New Orleans in two to three weeks.

“They are our largest export customer. We’re very happy to have them back,” Cockrell said Friday.

Sanderson Farms shipped $48 million worth of leg quarters to Russia in 2009. Cockrell said he hopes to be able to ship half that amount over the rest of the year.

Analyst Farha Aslam of Stephens Inc. said in a research note that prices for leg quarters - a preferred meat in Russia - could trade in the 40 cents and 50 cents per pound range before long.

She anticipates that Russia trade will pull up prices toother markets, lifting the overall leg quarter selling price to between 35 cents and 40 cents per pound. Higher leg quarter prices should support industry profitability in the last six months of the year and offset a seasonal price decline in breast meat, Aslam wrote.

The Georgia Dock Price for leg quarters on Wednesday was 39.5 cents for next week’s trading.

Shares of Tyson closed Thursday at $17.85, up 57 cents or 3.30 percent, on the New York Stock Exchange. Shares have traded between $10.76 and $20.57 in the past year.

Business, Pages 69 on 07/25/2010

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