WASHINGTON – Next year, Russia plans to cut its poultry import quota to 350,000 metric tons, which is 50% less than in 2010 and almost 40% less than originally planned, according to Bloomberg. The Russian government said in December 2009 quotas would drop to 600,000 tons in 2011 and 550,000 tons in 2012.

In 2003, Russia introduced import quotas to help domestic producers. During 2010 quotas were cut by 18% to help increase national production. The pork import quota will remain unchanged at 472,000 tons next year, dropping to 425,000 tons in 2012, according to one source. Meanwhile for 2011, the quota for frozen-beef imports will also remain unchanged at 530,000 tons and the quota for chilled beef will remain at 30,000 tons.