(Yicai Global) Sept. 1 -- US poultry farming firms hope they can resume exporting to China by year's end, Chinese newspaper National Business Day reported yesterday, quoting James Sumner, president of the USA Poultry and Egg Export Council (USAPEEC), as saying.

China closed its coop to US poultry imports in January 2015 after ducks infected with highly pathogenic avian influenza surfaced in Oregon, a ban still in effect today. US poultry farmers hope that it will be lifted this year, Sumner said at the International Poultry and Pork Show SIAVS 2017.

President Donald Trump has been instrumental in goading China to lift the ban on US beef imports, he noted. The two countries corralled a deal in late June that allows US firms to export beef to China for the first time since 2003, when mad cow disease broke out. The US was China's biggest beef supplier before that.

The ban on US poultry imports was hatched out of safety concerns resulting from the bird flu epidemic, the Chinese government explained. However, Sumner argues, a glut of poultry supplies is the real reason underlying the ban, with the Chinese government reluctant to see the supply further swelling, which may lead to price cuts.