August 5, 2015

Russia is the second biggest importer of U.S. broiler meat after Mexico, taking 8% of U.S. exports or 276,100 tons last year according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).  But now U.S. poultry producers such as Sanderson Farms are looking for alternative markets after Russia threatened to ban U.S. poultry imports as trade tensions escalate between the two countries.  Russia is also the seventh biggest export market for U.S. pistachios and U.S. growers have seen shipments cut by half this year because of rising political tensions. There is unease among the industry that Russia will turn to Iran, the world’s second biggest producer as an alternate source for the nut.  Grain companies are also being affected.  Last month a Cargill sunflower crushing facility was occupied by an armed group, and Glencore is attempting to sell its grain silos in the country but is not expected to be met with much luck.  Russia is claiming that the antibiotic tracycline was found in four U.S. chicken shipments, however U.S. exporters state that there was no issue with the cargo and that Russian threats to ban imports are purely politically driven and a low cost method of retaliating against U.S. sanctions.

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