American Poultry Farmers Regain Access to China

Some good news for American Poultry farmers.

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue announced Thursday that China has lifted its ban on poultry imports from the United States.

In making the announcement Ambassador Lighthizer called China an important export market for America’s poultry farmers.

“The United States welcomes China’s decision to finally lift its unwarranted ban on U.S. poultry and poultry products. This is great news for both America’s farmers and China’s consumers,” said Ambassador Lighthizer. “China is an important export market for America’s poultry farmers, and we estimate they will now be able to export more than $1 billion worth of poultry and poultry products each year to China. Reopening China to U.S. poultry will create new export opportunities for our poultry farmers and support thousands of workers employed by the U.S. poultry industry.”

Secretary Perdue said, “After being shut out of the market for years, U.S. poultry producers and exporters welcome the reopening of China’s market to their products. America’s producers are the most productive in the world and it is critical they be able to sell their bounty to consumers in other parts of the globe. We will continue our work to expand market access in important markets like China as well as other countries, to support our producers and U.S. jobs.”

In 2013, the U.S. exported over $500 million dollars worth of poultry to China, but because of an avian flu outbreak in the U.S. in 2014, China banned all U.S. poultry in January 2015.

The U.S. poultry industry has been free of the disease since 2017.

The United States is the world’s second largest poultry exporter, with global exports of poultry meat and products of $4.3 billion last year.