Poultry Independence

First Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov said that Russia, the largest importer of U.S. chicken in 2008, would become self-sufficient in poultry and pork in 2011.

"We will be quite capable of supplying ourselves fully with poultry meat and pork and will work actively to boost beef production," Zubkov told farmers in the southern Rostov region.

The country may boost poultry production by 386,000 tons and pork by more than 200,000 tons this year, he said. The country imported 1.8 billion pounds of chicken in 2008, down 3.8 percent from 2007.