Russia restores US turkey imports

Following the inspection of several US businesses, Rosselkhoznadzor has decided to remove restrictions on two US companies producing turkey meat: Jennie-O Turkey Store Sales and Butterball. A third company also successfully passed the inspection, but was not a supplier to the Customs Union prior to the ban, so Russian vets need to agree its export approval with authorities in Belarus and Kazakhstan.

"The ban on turkey meat was introduced in February 2013, due to a suspicion that manufacturers were using the growth stimulant ractopamine,”​ said Rosselkhoznadzor.

“The US manufacturers were approved to supply their products to Russia following a series of measures taken to prevent the use of ractopamine in meat production, and they provided us with the information on the relevant programs.”​

Last year Russian vets checked 15 enterprises for the production of poultry meat in the US, including three turkey production businesses. However, according to information from Rosselkhoznadzor, before the ban, more than 200 companies had the right to supply turkey to Russia, so the restrictions are far from being lifted completely. Rosselkhoznadzor insisted it needed guarantees from not only individual enterprises, but also the US entire veterinary system.

“We will make a final list [of enterprises allowed to export turkey to Russia] during February, although our US colleagues say ractopamine is not being used in the manufacture of this type of meat at all,”​ said Alexeenko.

At the same time, Russian experts say inspection results were sufficiently positive, with the American turkey manufacturers not found to be using ractopamine.