MOSCOW, March 21 (RIA Novosti) - Demand for poultry products in Russia has dropped by 20-25% since November amidst fears of bird flu, poultry farmers said Tuesday.

"We are losing 3-5% every month," Galina Bobylyova, director general of the Russian Poultry Farmers Union, told an international poultry farming conference.

She called for the imposition of economic measures to reverse the downward trend.

"The Russian Poultry Farmers Union has repeatedly asked the Ministry of Agriculture and the Economic Development Ministry to cut import quotas for 2006 by at least 30%," she said.

Bobylyova said the reason behind the measure was that domestic poultry production totaling 1,370 million metric tons in 2005 nearly equaled imports accounting for 1,328.8 million.

"Thus, the market share of domestic production was 51% and import 49%," she said.

Bobylyova said domestic poultry production was expected to rise this year to 1,550 million metric tons, with imports totaling 1,331 million, meaning per-capita consumption would increase 18.8 kg in 2005 to 20 kg in 2006.

She said the proposed economic method combined with a media campaign to tell consumers that Russian poultry products posed no threat to human health could help maintain growth in domestic poultry production and demand for poultry products.

Fears of bird flu come in the wake of a third wave of the disease that swept the south of the country in February, killing over a million birds. Inoculation of birds has since begun in the affected regions, and no human cases have been reported.