The USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) confirmed China will resume accepting raw poultry imports from 17 U.S. states cleared of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI): Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and Wisconsin — all approved as of May 15.
Meatingplace reports the move follows President Trump’s summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping and restores compliance with a 2020 regionalization agreement that Beijing had ignored since August 2022. Under the agreement, China was required to lift import bans within 90 days of HPAI elimination from affected farms.
The lapse hit U.S. exports hard. After peaking at nearly $1.1 billion in 2022, U.S. poultry exports to China fell to $481 million in 2024 and just $286 million last year, as China blocked raw imports from 44 states. Another 27 states remain under ban due to more recent outbreaks, but major broiler-producing states Georgia, Mississippi, and Missouri have reached the 90-day threshold and are expected to be cleared within days.
