SEATTLE, WA - U.S. Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman said that he expected any U.S. food aid package for Russia would likely include both grains and meat.
But Glickman told Reuters that it was impossible to determine the exact composition of any package until the United States received a formal request from the Russian side.
Glickman said he met last week with the leader of a team of Russians, who are in the country exploring possible food aid.
“I think we can come up with a satisfactory package. In my judgement, they will need to be acquiring, through a variety of different means, grains and meats both,” Glickman said. “So we want to be helpful in that regard.”
Glickman, who is in Seattle for a signing ceremony on a salmon recovery program, noted that the Russians have “low level of carryover stocks, of grains particularly.”
Russia has been the number one market for U.S. poultry exports and a sizeable market for U.S. pork exports in recent years.
U.S. pork producers have been pushing hard for a U.S. food aid package for Russia, but poultry producers have said they would prefer a credit program to jump start commercial sales that have stalled since the rouble devaluation in August.
A recent USDA attache report pegged Russia's 1998/99 wheat import needs at 3.5 million tonnes, but noted that Russia could have a difficult time importing that volume because of its current financial crisis.
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