AFIA Receives Clarification on Last Week's Statement Regarding China's Poultry Imports

November 21, 2019

Contact Sarah Novak, Vice President of Membership and Public Relations

*Updated on 11/21/2019

The American Feed Industry Association has received clarification from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) that last week’s announcement from China only includes poultry imports for human consumption and does not include other poultry products, such as those used in pet food. At this time, the import restriction for pet food with poultry products is still in effect despite there being no difference in the risk of introducing poultry diseases between importing poultry for human or animal consumption.

AFIA is extremely disappointed to learn that China is implementing only a partial lifting of the ban and we look forward to working with APHIS and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative to rectify the situation.

AFIA Pleased With China’s Decision to Resume U.S. Poultry Imports

ARLINGTON, Va. – Nov. 14, 2019 – The American Feed Industry Association is pleased with China’s decision to resume imports of U.S. poultry and poultry products. China is a valuable market for the U.S. animal food industry – for exports of feed, feed ingredients and value-added products such as meat and poultry. With China resuming imports of poultry and poultry ingredients, we will see more feed and feed ingredients used by the U.S. poultry industry.

“Reopening this market for poultry products is also an important first step in expanding the Chinese market for U.S. pet food,” said Constance Cullman, AFIA’s president and CEO. “This ban was first put in place in 2015 when pet food was already subject to a Chinese restriction on ruminant ingredients. This left few options in the way of animal-origin ingredients in pet food destined for China. As a result, exports of U.S. pet food to China dropped from an already meager $8.3 million to $1.4 million within the first year.”

Although AFIA is encouraged by this news, the industry is eager for further progress on remaining barriers that plague U.S. animal food manufacturers from accessing this important market.