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#11
pravda.ru
December 5, 2002
Chicken, Schmicken: Bush’s Legs Not Welcome in Russia
Russian Minister of Agriculture Alexey Gordeyev thinks that America earns too
much on Bush's Legs
To all appearances, the Russian-American chicken war is on again. This can be
explained with two reasons. Either Russian inspectors visited the USA and
decided that American steroid-injected chicken is by no means fit for the
Russian people, as a matter of principle, or the Russian Ministry of Agriculture
simply feels giddy because of its success. Russian Minister of Agriculture
Alexey Gordeyev said at a press-conference yesterday that Russia would impose
quotas on poultry imports. In his words, there is no other way.
The arguments the minister quoted at that were quite simple, and mostly had
to deal with numbers. In Gordeyev’s words, Russia currently consumes 2.2
million tons of poultry per year, and 1.3 million tons are imported. The
majority of the imported poultry, 1.15 million tons, is imported from the USA.
This fact is not very agreeable for the Russian self-consciousness. On the other
hand, if chicken meat wasn’t imported from the USA, Russia would import it
from some other country, Zimbabwe for instance. Would it make any difference?
However, the Russian minister of agriculture was extremely offended by the
fact that America earns 1 billion dollars per year by selling its rejected
chicken to Russia. It is reasonable to suppose that if Russia stops importing
American chicken, the USA will lose a lot of cash, which would be very pleasant
for Russia. At the same time, this doesn’t mean at all that if America doesn’t
get the money, it will go to Russian poultry farmers. One thing is for sure: if
American chicken isn’t imported in Russia, chicken meat will become more
expensive in the country, may be two or three times, which is certainly
unfavorable for the Russian people.
As it turned out, Minister of Agriculture Alexey Gordeyev also has an
exclusive opinion of its own concerning Russia’s poultry farming. In his
words, the growth rate of domestic poultry farming currently makes up 10% per
year; however, the growth rate of poultry imports exceeds domestic poultry
farming by three times. “It is the moment of truth for the government. If the
customs and fiscal budgetary policies are not changed, Russian production will
fall,” the minister said. In his words, “this will result in the collapse of
the Chicken industry, and much time will be required to revive it again.”
In fact, if Russian poultry breeders wanted (or better to say, had the
opportunity) to win back the poultry market, there would be no American chicken
(traditionally called “Bush’s legs”) in Russia at all. We should remember
that the importation of products is not the mere importation of the products
itself. It also means negotiations between Russian and foreign officials and
producers and business trips abroad for Russian officials who are not
sufficiently rich judging by the European standards. This means that the current
situation is actually very profitable for Russian officials.
This is the reason why domestic poultry factories still cannot reach their
planned production capacity. In fact, they won’t be able to meet capacity even
if quotas are imposed on American chicken. It is very likely that, after the new
battle in the “chicken war” is over, more negotiations will be held and,
once again, “Bush’s legs” will return to the Russian market, only at a
higher price this time.
Kira Poznakhirko
PRAVDA.Ru
Translated by Maria Gousseva
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