The second biggest U.S. chicken producer behind Tyson Foods Inc said the U.S. Department of Agriculture gave the company approval to export chicken from its processing facilities in Boaz and Russellville in Alabama and Dallas.
"Russia is an important export market for U.S. chicken and the re-opening of the borders will be a significant benefit to our company and industry," Pilgrim's Pride Chief Executive Don Jackson said in a statement.
Russia, once the largest overseas buyer of U.S. chicken, had banned the meat earlier this year, claiming a chlorine rinse used here violated its food safety rules. This irked U.S. chicken producers, who argued that the rinse was safe.
Under the new requirements approved last week, U.S. chicken companies can replace the chlorinated rinse with cetylpyridinium chloride, peroxyacetic acid or hydrogen peroxide, the company said.
Pilgrim's plants in Boaz and Russellville were converted to peroxyacetic acid earlier this year. (Reuters)
