U.S. poultry products flock to Russia, Asia

Prepared Foods, April, 1997

Russia and China came up huge in driving those numbers. Jim Sumner, president of the Council, says that since the early 1990s, Russia's poultry imports from the U.S. rocketed from 150,000 metric tons in '90 to 853,000 tons in '96, a demand that coincided with the massive shut down of Russian broiler manufacturing facilities - reflecting the country's overall economic downturn.

"The Russian consumer is in dire need of low-cost protein, and the U.S. is a low-cost provider of poultry due to our large access to feed grain supplies," Sumner concludes. Russia accounts for almost half (43%) of all U.S. poultry exports, while China accounts for 26% of U.S. exports. Chinese consumers are particularly fond of poultry paws and wing tips, considered a "delicacy," says Sumner. Russians, meanwhile, prefer leg quarters.

Meantime, the U.S. beef industry is reaffirming its commitment to the Russian market, announcing in late January the hiring of a representative to work with U.S. suppliers and the Russian trade in Moscow to greater develop the market.