Poultry products from Spain: what your Russian buyer will now require from your shipment

What exactly is closed and whose shipments it touches

The restrictions cover not a single tariff line but the whole poultry chain. They apply to live poultry and hatching eggs, poultry meat, finished meat products made of poultry, and any product containing processed poultry products in its composition. Listed separately are feed and feed additives for poultry, as well as used equipment for keeping, slaughtering and cutting poultry.

There are two exemptions from this list, and both have to be provable on paper. The first covers goods that have undergone treatment ensuring destruction of the Newcastle disease virus in accordance with the provisions of the WOAH Terrestrial Animal Health Code. The second covers feed and feed additives of plant origin, and those obtained by chemical and microbiological synthesis.

The most uncomfortable category for a supplier is composite products. Semi-finished goods, canned food, soups, sauces, snacks and pet food fall easily under the wording «containing processed poultry products», even though their commodity code sits far away from the meat chapter. If your specification contains such items with a Spanish manufacturing site, the recipe has to be broken down before loading, not after the container has arrived at the Russian border.

Note that this concerns you even if your own company is not registered in Spain. A trader consolidating European food in a single container, a pet-food producer using Spanish poultry protein, a machinery dealer reselling equipment bought at a Spanish poultry plant — all of them ship goods whose origin is Spanish for veterinary purposes, and the check will be made on the production site, not on the seller.

How the restriction reads in your shipping documents

The ban is imposed by administrative territory, so the question at release will be phrased like this: which province does the goods physically originate from, and where is the manufacturing establishment located. The answer must be visible from the veterinary certificate and the accompanying documents, not follow from your verbal assurance to the buyer.

A consignment from Spain can still be released after 25 August, but only if the documents directly confirm origin outside Segovia, Ávila, Salamanca and Valladolid. A certificate stating simply «Spain», with no province and no establishment address, is a ready-made reason to refuse release.

For your buyer the check runs in the same logic as any non-tariff measure: first the commodity code, then the list of prohibitions and restrictions, then the document that lifts the restriction. That last document is the one only you can produce, and it has to travel with the goods. The practical side of releasing food consignments in Russia is described in our section on customs clearance of food products.

Certificate form, establishment approval and used equipment

Two questions come up constantly at moments like this: which form of certificate is required for poultry products, and how does it relate to the approval of the establishment for export to Russia. The logic is simple. The veterinary certificate is issued by the competent service of the country of dispatch in the agreed form, and it names the manufacturing establishment together with its identifier. The right to ship to Russia belongs not to a country in general but to a specific plant that has passed the admission procedure and been entered in the relevant list. Territorial restrictions are laid on top of that: even an approved establishment cannot ship if it is located in a closed province.

Hence the practical conclusion for your export desk: what has to match is the chain «certificate form — establishment — establishment address». All three elements must agree with each other and with the contents of the invoice and the transport documents. A discrepancy in the address, or a missing establishment identifier in the certificate, will not be read in your favour by the inspector at the border. Where a product also needs conformity documents on the Russian side, they are tied to the same manufacturer data — see certification.

The clause on used equipment for keeping, slaughtering and cutting poultry is missed by almost everyone: the restriction covers not only products but also machinery sold off by European poultry plants during modernisation.

If you had a sale of a second-hand slaughter line or cage equipment planned for a Russian customer, the deal has to be reassembled: the region the equipment comes from and its status have to be checked. Importing used machinery is a separate procedure with its own document and expert-examination requirements — the general framework is described in customs clearance of equipment and machine tools. A veterinary ban on top of that makes the whole scheme far more sensitive to the quality of your paperwork.

What the exporter should do before loading

1. Go through every live contract and specification for Russia and the CIS and write out the addresses of the manufacturing establishments, not just the legal addresses of the selling companies.
2. Sort the items into three baskets: the closed provinces, the remaining regions of Spain, and the exemptions by treatment and composition.
3. For every remaining item, arrange the veterinary certificate stating the region and the establishment identifier — before loading, and send the scans to your buyer before the truck or vessel departs.
4. Check composite products and feed against their recipes: any poultry-derived ingredient moves the item into the risk zone, and your buyer will ask for a written composition statement.
5. Check separately any position involving used poultry equipment.
6. For cargo already on the road or on the water, agree the delay scenario with the buyer and the carrier in writing now: where the goods will wait, at what temperature, and who pays for storage and demurrage.
7. Recalculate the economics of the delivery with a possible standstill in mind: duty and customs fees do not change here, but reefer storage and demurrage eat the margin faster than any tariff rate.
8. Prepare an alternative production site or country of origin in advance — switching a supply source takes weeks, not days, and your buyer will ask for it long before the contract is signed.

Realistically, a consignment prepared this way needs two to three weeks of lead time: obtaining a composition breakdown from the plant takes days, re-issuing the veterinary certificate takes days more, and the buyer needs the scans before the goods move. Building that buffer into the shipping schedule is cheaper than any solution invented after the container is already at the border. If the timing is tight, the mode of transport matters too — compare road delivery and sea freight for the perishable part of the order.

Frequently asked questions

Do the restrictions cover the whole of Spain?
No. The list names four administrative territories: the provinces of Segovia, Ávila, Salamanca and Valladolid. Products from other regions of the country are not caught by the territorial ban, but the origin will have to be confirmed with documents.

We are not a Spanish company, but our canned goods contain chicken stock from a Spanish plant. Is that poultry product?
The restrictions extend to all types of products containing processed poultry products in their composition. So it is not the name of the goods that decides but the recipe: if there is a poultry ingredient, the item has to be examined separately.

Is there a legal way to ship product out of a closed province?
The only exemption is for goods subjected to treatment ensuring destruction of the Newcastle disease virus in accordance with the provisions of the WOAH Terrestrial Animal Health Code. That exemption has to be supported by documents, not stated verbally to the buyer.

Is poultry feed banned as well?
The restrictions were introduced for feed and feed additives for poultry, except feed and additives of plant origin and those obtained by chemical and microbiological synthesis. The composition and the origin of the raw material must be visible from the manufacturer’s documents.

What will my Russian buyer ask me for now?
A veterinary certificate in the agreed form that shows the establishment, its identifier and its address outside the four provinces; where relevant, a composition breakdown for composite products and feed, or documentary proof of the virus-destroying treatment. Everything must be consistent with the invoice and the transport documents.

Summary

From 25 August 2026 imports of poultry products from the provinces of Segovia, Ávila, Salamanca and Valladolid are closed, and the ban covers not only meat and live poultry but also finished products with poultry ingredients, feed and used poultry equipment. The key to releasing the remaining consignments is a veterinary certificate that shows the establishment and the region of origin beyond doubt. As the shipper, you are the only party who can produce that document, and it has to be ready before loading: once the goods have arrived, the options are few and the storage costs grow every day. Send us a request and we will go through your specific consignment.

We will check the origin of your consignment against its veterinary documents and clear the poultry products at Russian customs for your buyer.

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