by | Jan 13, 2015 | Exports, Markets

China has banned all imports of US poultry and eggs following outbreaks of avian influenza in the Pacific Northwest, reports Reuters.

The ban is effective January 8; any poultry shipped after that date is to be returned or destroyed.

Other countries have restricted imports of US poultry products based on the US Department of Agriculture confirmation that avian flu had been detected in wild birds in Washington State and a poultry flock in Oregon – but these restrictions seem generally to be confined to products from the affected areas, not the entire US, as the Seattle Globalist reports.

In its response to the Chinese ban, the US Poultry & Egg Export Council stresses that the virus has not been found in commercial poultry – indeed, the reported cases are far from major poultry and egg production areas. “There’s absolutely no justification for China to take such drastic action,” says Jim Sumner, the trade association’s president.

Since the ban extends to US breeding stock, the Chinese domestic industry which relies on the US for hatching eggs and chicks may see its production decline.

As our trade data (below) shows, the US is a top supplier, and China an important market for frozen chicken cuts (HS 020714) – which ranked 7th among US agricultural exports as of November, as reported in Datamyne’s monthly US agricultural imports/exports ranking report (available from our Free Report Library).

China Imports HS020714 1H14

US Exports HS020714 1H14

Note that US poultry exporters are already coping with the loss of the Russian market. The second-ranked destination for chicken parts in first-half 2014, Russia imposed retaliatory sanctions on these, among other food imports, in August 2014. (In November, Angola seemed to take up the slack, ranking No. 1 among markets with 13.34% share of volume, followed by Hong Kong at 11.38% and China with 7.73%.)

And last month, Russia’s Federal Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance Service (VPSS) piled on with two new bans on US poultry, by-products and prepared products from poultry, as well as nonheat-treated poultry, live poultry and hatching eggs from Washington State, reports the USDA.

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