US poultry plants approved for export to China
The list, which includes plants run by poultry processing businesses such as Foster Farms, Perdue Foods, Pilgrim’s Pride, Tyson Foods and Sanderson Farms, has been published on the US Department of Agriculture Food Safety and Inspection Service portal.
Earlier this month, China lifted the ban on the import of US poultry that had been in place since January 2015. The ban had been put in place due to an avian influence outbreak in the US.
At the peak of poultry trade between the US and China, the annual value of poultry exports was worth $71m for turkey and $722m for chicken.
Poultry trade bodies in the US estimate that renewed access to the Chinese market could result in $1bn in sales annually for chicken paws alone and, due to China’s meat protein deficit as a result of African Swine Fever, there could be as much as another $1bn of potential exports of other chicken products, including leg and breast meat. It believes that turkey exports could generate another $100m in sales and poultry breeding stock could create at least $60m more for US producers.
