SEOUL: South Korean Ministry of Agriculture has adopted a new regionalization policy that is good news for the U.S. poultry and egg industry. The new policy prevents a countrywide ban on U.S. exports to Korea in the event of a future finding of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza. Should a case be found in the future, only exports from each affected state will be restricted. That will allow the U.S. to continue shipping poultry and egg products to the Korean market.
National Chicken Council President Mike Brown says the U.S. has one of the most stringent surveillance, eradication, and monitoring programs in the world when it comes to avian diseases. “I want to thank our administration for their efforts in working with the South Koreans to adopt this policy of regionalization,” says Brown. Jim Sumner, president of the USA Poultry and Egg Council, says the U.S. now becomes the world’s most reliable supplier of poultry products to Korea.
Korea was on track to become one of the biggest export markets for U.S. poultry products when the U.S. was hit by an outbreak of avian influenza in 2014 and 2015.
