http://www.moscowtimes.ru/stories/2002/03/12/001.html
The ban could cost U.S. chicken farmers up to $700 million a year.
Some lawmakers, meanwhile, saw a silver lining to the ban.
"If [Deputy Prime Minister and Agriculture Minister] Alexei Gordeyev ends up having enough political clout to stand up for Russian poultry farmers, then Russia could cover that enormous supply from United States within 1 1/2 years," Nikolai Kharitonov, head of the Agrarian-Industrial bloc in the State Duma, said on NTV television.
Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov said the ban was a step toward weaning Russia off food imports.
"The United States played an important role in providing Russia with this very important product," Luzhkov told Interfax. However, Russia is now "close to providing for itself."
"We must support Russian producers, whose production, by the way, is of a better quality than that of imports," he said.
Visits to several outdoor food markets Monday found that U.S. poultry was still on sale in many stalls at pre-ban prices of about 40 rubles per kilogram. But vendors said their supplies were fast running out.
"People are afraid," said Nina Vasilyeva, a vendor at the Dynamo Market. "But they're still buying American chicken. Pensioners, especially. They go for price. People who understand food buy Russian, they know that ours taste better."
"Pensioners preferred buying American -- it still costs 40 rubles, while Russian chicken costs around 60 rubles now," said Katya Polivanova at the Orekhovo market. "We are selling out the last batch of American poultry, and there is no more left in our warehouse."
Retailers targeting the middle- and upper-class Muscovites said that they were unfazed by the ban and that their poultry prices would not go up.
"We have many Russians suppliers, as well as Hungarian and French suppliers," said Mikhail Panovko, spokesman for the country's largest retailer, Perekryostok. "We don't even expected price increases."
Natalya Gerasimova, deputy head of procurement at Rosinter Restaurants, which operates a number of eateries including Patio Pizza, American Bar & Grill and the Rostik's fried chicken fast-food chain, said that its outlets almost exclusively use Russian poultry and that there should not be any problems with supplies or prices.
The Sedmoi Kontinent supermarket chain agreed. "We have no worries at all -- we expect our Russian suppliers to cover all of our orders," said Sedmoi Kontinent spokesman Valentin Zapivalov. "Prices are unlikely to grow because they are already high enough."
A number of regions -- including Leningrad, Vologda, Sverdlovsk, Chelyabinsk, Orenburg and Tambov -- also said they would have enough supplies to cover their needs.
If the ban goes on indefinitely, Russia will never be able to satisfy demand for poultry, said Larisa Dorogova of the Institute for Agricultural Market Studies. "But it is necessary to cut the share of imports to support local producers," she said.
Russia imported more than 1.3 million tons of poultry last year, with over 1 million coming from the United States.
Gordeyev said Monday, "There are other countries that can provide Russia with quality poultry instead of nonquality."
Brazil is the second largest exporter of poultry to Russia, followed by France, Germany, Hungary and Holland.
The managers of BRF, one of Brazil's largest poultry exporters, said demand for Brazilian poultry may grow by 20 percent under the ban, RIA Novosti reported Monday.
"We will gain if Russia keeps the ban on American chicken legs for a couple of months," said BRF chief executive Duncan Potter.
Sovkomflot Tanker
MOSCOW (MT) -- Top shipping company Sovkomflot received its second Suez-Max-class oil tanker from South Korea's Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., Prime-Tass reported Sovkomflot as saying Monday.
The new tanker was officially transferred to its crew in South Korea's port of Ulsan on March 8. --------------------------
Gazprom in Iran
PARIS (Reuters) -- The giant offshore South Pars gas field, the largest project in Iran involving international oil and gas companies, has begun production, French oil giant TotalFinaElf said Monday.
TotalFinaElf has a 40 percent stake and operates the $2 billion project. Malaysia's Petronas and Gazprom have a 30 percent stake each.
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$150M Gazprom Loan
MOSCOW (Reuters) -- Germany's Deutsche Bank has extended a $150 million unsecured loan to Gazprom to be used for the company's operational needs, Gazprom said Monday.
"This loan, in combination with the similar financing of $100 million arranged by the Deutsche Bank in December 2001, are the first one-year unsecured loan facilities for Gazprom since the Russian financial crisis in August 1998," it said in a statement.
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