Russia announced last week it was ending its embargo of U.S. poultry, a move the industry says could pay huge dividends domestically. In Minnesota, the country's No. 1 state for turkey and No. 10 for chicken and eggs, the move to end the five-month embargo was seen as a positive because "more of the turkey raised in the state is exported to other countries than consumed in-state," Derek Wallbank of the Minnesota Post reports. "It's a pretty large deal," Steve Olson, the executive director of the Minnesota Turkey Growers Association and the Broiler and Egg Association of Minnesota, told Wallbank. "Russia is the third-largest foreign market for us."
"Russia had been the No. 2 export market for Minnesota turkey, but a rise in Chinese demand coupled with on-and-off embargos dropped it to third," Wallbank writes. "Nationally, it remains the No. 1 foreign destination for U.S. turkey, with $800 million worth of turkey exported there annually." Olson told Wallbank he's "guardedly optimistic," noting that the details of how and when the ban would be lifted have yet to be ironed out. (Read more)
In a statement praising the decision U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, which recently became a big chicken state, said, "This is great news for the thousands of Kentuckians whose livelihoods depend on the poultry industry." Over the last three years, Kentucky exported $150 million in poultry to Russia and has 7,000 poultry industry employees and around 800 growers in 42 of its counties, a McConnell release said.
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