UPDATE 2-Russia to ban some U.S. chicken/pork

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By Bob Burgdorfer

CHICAGO, Oct 18 (Reuters) - Russia, the top export market for U.S. chicken and an important buyer of pork, has banned imports of poultry and pork from 30 U.S. facilities, USDA and meat industry sources said on Thursday.

The action followed Russia's inspections of the facilities this summer. The reasons for many of bans were not given, USDA and industry sources said, and the facilities were not identified.

"This is based on the audits that the Russians did," Toby Moore, spokesman for the USA Poultry and Egg Export Council, said of the poultry bans. "We haven't seen anything yet on why."

Shares of some major U.S. meat companies were lower on Thursday in the wake of the news, but one economist said Russia's action should not cause a severe impediment to chicken exports.

The bans involve 17 poultry processing plants, five poultry storage facilities, seven pork plants and one pork storage facility, USDA said. However, eight of the poultry plants were already banned due to salmonella concerns, USDA said.

Once the specific reasons for the bans are known, USDA said it has the authority to approve the facilities for Russia when the problems are fixed.

Russia's action sparked concern because it is the largest export market for U.S. chicken. In August it bought 211.2 million lbs, or 40 percent of all U.S. chicken exports that month. Also, in August it bought 17.56 million lbs of U.S. pork, or 7.3 percent of that month's total.