World meat industry news

Russia's biggest poultry producer will receive support from the Russian Ministry of Economic Development to extend its exports to new foreign markets.

 Sergey Mikhailov, CEO of the Cherkizovo, and Alexei Gruzdev, Deputy Minister of Economic Development of the Russian Federation, held a business meeting, during which they discussed measures to support the foreign economic activities of agro-industrial companies.

"The export of agricultural products, including poultry and pork, is one of the key drivers for the development of the Russian agribusiness sector," said Sergei Mikhailov.

He added that the company already delivers products to the CIS countries, the Eurasian Economic Union and Africa. The company also received halal certification for its products and obtained permission to export to the EU countries, Iraq and Benin.
"I am sure that further cooperation with the Ministry of Economic Development will increase the effectiveness of joint work. Russia is a relatively new player in the global meat market. Despite the fact that Russian enterprises produce high-quality products, they will have to work hard," added Cherkizovo's CEO.

Furthermore, Mr. Mikhailov talked with the Russian minister also about the reasons preventing the export of meat products to the EU market and the need to obtain a special quota from the EU member states for the Russian poultry meat.

In the meantime, according to Cherkizovo's news release, the import of poultry meat into the EU is limited by import tariff quotas which are distributed mainly between the largest suppliers - Brazil and Thailand, as well as the United States and Israel. Also, the markets of the EU, the Middle East, China and Turkey are of particular interest to poultry producers in Russia.

The next market targeted by Cherkizovo is Turkey. The company together with the Ministry of Economic Development plan to negotiate the inclusion of products with high added value in the list of goods allowed for import to this country.

During the meeting, the two officials talked about other countries that are of particular interest for the Russian enterprises. Pork producers from Russia especially consider that the USA, Canada, Mexico, Japan, China and South Korea are a priority amongst commercial trading partners.

The meeting also focused on the possibility of opening up the Chinese market for Russian livestock products and the steps that need to be taken to reach this goal.