![Two or three weeks of maritime transportation, then customs clearance in St. Petersburg... and the Russian fans [of U.S. poultry] may consume it again - Sputnik International](https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/15958/42/159584289_0:0:0:0_600x0_80_0_0_4d4880a6b384dac121df33aba94d197c.jpg "Two or three weeks of maritime transportation, then customs clearance in St. Petersburg... and the Russian fans [of U.S. poultry] may consume it again")
It took Russian and U.S. negotiators six months to agree on the resumption of U.S. poultry supplies to Russia due to the attitude of U.S. officials, Russia's chief sanitary official said.
"Yet again I become convinced that it is easier to negotiate with businessmen than with officials. U.S. manufacturers were ready and willing to switch to Russian technologies already in February, but officials of the U.S Department of Agriculture and the State Department stood in their way," Gennady Onishchenko said.
U.S. President Barack Obama said on Thursday that Moscow and Washington agreed to restart U.S. poultry supplies to Russia, which were effectively banned from January 1 as new harsher sanitary requirements came into force.
"As soon as U.S. manufacturers announce that they launch production of poultry without the use of chlorine at the cooling stage, and it is confirmed by [Russian] agriculture ministry experts who issue a special certificate, the poultry will again be allowed into Russia," he said.
"Two or three weeks of maritime transportation, then customs clearance in St. Petersburg... and the Russian fans [of U.S. poultry] may consume it again," he said.
The Russian side proposed U.S. manufacturers to use one of 12 different technologies of chlorine-free treatment of poultry. "They may choose any," Onishchenko said.
The new requirements, which apply to both imports and meat processed in Russia, state that the amount of chlorine in the solution used for the processing of poultry meat should not exceed the level set for drinking water, 0.3-0.5 milligrams per liter. They also state the fluid that separates when defrosting the meat should not exceed 4% of the total weight of the bird.
Chlorine has been used as the primary anti-microbial treatment in the United States for a quarter of a century.
Imports from the United States, the world's largest poultry producer and exporter, accounted for some 750,000 metric tons of poultry consumed in Russia last year. This year, as Russia seeks to boost domestic poultry production, the quota has been set at 600,000 tons.
HUNTSVILLE, Canada, June 26 (RIA Novosti)
