This is the VOA SpecialEnglish AGRICULTURE REPORT.
American agriculture is recovering from a Russian ban on chickenimports from the United States. The Russian government ended itsmonth-long ban on American chicken and other poultry products lastmonth. Yet the effects of the trade ban continue to affect Americanfarmers and the American meat industry.
In recent weeks, prices forchicken and other poultry products dropped because of fewer exports.Many Americans bought more chicken, but spent less on beef and porkproducts. Because of this, beef and pork prices dropped, too. Thatis good news for most people, but bad news for farmers.
Russia is the largest market for American poultry exports. Lastyear, American producers earned more than six-hundred-milliondollars from poultry exports to Russia.
Russian officials announced the import ban in early March. Theysaid American poultry processing centers were not clean. They alsoobjected to the poultry being fed antibiotic drugs and otherchemicals.
American officials denied the poultry producers were in violationof Russian health rules. Some trade experts suspect the ban hadlittle to do with chicken or poultry products. They said Russianofficials were angry about a decision by President Bush to orderhigh taxes on steel imports entering the United States. Steel is amajor Russian export.
For weeks, American officials negotiated with the Russiangovernment to end the ban on poultry imports. Mister Bush evencalled Russian leader Vladimir Putin to urge an end to the dispute.In late March, the two sides signed an agreement. Russia agreed toend the ban on imports from all but four American states. Russianinspectors reportedly found diseased chickens from those states.
As part of the agreement, American agricultural officials nowrequire poultry producers to have a new health permit. They alsorequire new methods to test chickens for salmonella bacteria.Salmonella has been linked to food poisoning.
The day after the ban ended, Russia’s Agriculture Ministryannounced that Russian companies must have a new permit if they planto import American poultry. American officials warned that thisrequirement could delay the recovery of American poultry sales.
This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by GeorgeGrow.