Russian consumer watchdog Rospotrebnadzor (Federal Service for Supervision of Consumer Protection and Welfare) has received top-level support in its efforts to combat high chlorine content in imported poultry.
On Thursday, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin visited Snegiryovka village in the Leningrad Region and chaired a meeting on the development of the poultry-breeding sector there. During the discussion, Putin warned foreign partners that Moscow could change poultry suppliers if its current partners were unable or unwilling to bring their products into conformity with Russian sanitary standards. This primarily concerns US companies accounting for 77% of Russia's poultry imports. US deliveries may be stopped starting next week.
On Sunday, a delegation of experts from the US Department of Agriculture is expected to arrive in Russia to discuss the chicken-meat production process with their Russian counterparts. US experts hope they will be able to convince Rospotrebnadzor that the chlorine being used in the meat industry is absolutely harmless. At the same time, it appears that top government officials have no intention of pandering to even the largest poultry exporter.
First Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov told the meeting on Thursday that poultry imports from the United States could be stopped as soon as January 19. However, all poultry imported and subjected to customs clearance before that deadline could be sold. The ban will continue pending a Russian-US compromise.
Russia's Chief Sanitary Doctor, Gennady Onishchenko, reiterated that chlorine-treated poultry was harmful for the human organism. The latest research suggests that chlorine is a cancer risk factor. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin added that he still did not see US partners' readiness to observe Russian sanitary standards regarding poultry production.
Let's not search for political implications in the situation around chlorinated chicken, Putin said. "There is nothing here except economic considerations and food safety," Putin noted. He said the EU had banned the use of chlorine since 1997.
The EU stopped buying US poultry 13 years ago. Albert Davleyev, Vice-President of the International Poultry Development Programme, said this ban was already being revised at the level of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). According to Davleyev, Russian companies have already discarded chlorine and spray their products with solutions containing lactic acid and acetic acid instead. But the efficiency of this method and its possible negative effects on human health have not been sufficiently studied. Scientists have so far failed to ascertain the absolutely negative effects of chlorine treatment.
Sergei Yushin, Head of the Executive Committee of the National Meat Association, said both countries should compromise, otherwise the market could face chicken-meat shortages in 2010 and the price of Russian products could go up by about 20%.
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How Rospotrebnadzor set up an Iron Curtain
On January 1, 2010, a Rospotrebnadzor resolution banning the use of solutions with chlorine content over 0.3-0.5 mg per litre for meat-processing purposes was enacted. The same standards apply to drinking-water purification. Gennady Onishchenko's department had reportedly drafted this document a year ago.
Market players say that Russian producers have had time to prepare for the change over the past 12 months and to bring the production process into conformity with sanitary standards. US partners, who are supposed to control an estimated 20% of the Russian poultry market in 2010, have failed to accomplish this objective. This year's US quota is 600,000 tonnes.
Darya Cherkudinova